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Four Continents an example of things to come at 2010 Games

February 8, 2009 05:11 PM | Posted by   Pj Kwong  

The ISU Four Continents Championships wrapped up this weekend in Vancouver, and as a test event for the Olympics it was easy to see why figure skating is going to be one of the sports to watch at the 2010 Games.

Where to start?

The pairs ended up with China's Qing Pang and Jian Tong on the top of the podium, Canada's Jessica Dube and Bryce Davison taking the silver and Chinese duo Dan Zhang and Hao Zhang earning the bronze.

Pang and Tong led after the short program but it was their tango-inspired free program, choreographed by Sarah Kawahara, that set the pairs world on its ear. Beautifully constructed and perfectly suited to Jean's feel for music in particular, it is the program to beat this season. With this tenth anniversary of the Four Continents, Pang and Tong have been at every event except one and 2009 makes five gold medals for them.

In ice dance Canada's Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir, the defending world silver medallists, led through both the compulsory and the original dance segments of the competition, only to be beaten by training mates and American champions Meryl Davis and Charlie White in the end. The bronze went to 2008 junior world champions Emily Samuelson and Evan Bates of the U.S.. The story of the free dance was the dazzling performance from Davis and White, whose Samson and Delilah program was spellbinding and for me, their strongest of the season.

American Evan Lysacek, who won silver in the men's competition, said it all in the post free skate press conference when he said: "the competition itself has changed so much. It used to be that top athletes would pass and not come, while taking a rest before worlds. With the exception of Brian (French skater Joubert), top contenders from the world are here. Now it's become a super-power competition for men and the ladies."

Two-time Canadian men's champion Patrick Chan walked away with the gold. He posted the highest technical elements score ever in the short program and went on to easily capture the free. In September, Patrick was quoted as saying that one of his goals was to be able to post an overall total score between 230 and 240 internationally. It may have sounded ambitious in the fall but here we are and Chan's score was 249.19, the fourth highest ever.

The bronze went to Takahiko Kozuka of Japan. Honourable mention has to go to Canada's other two men: national silver medallist Vaughn Chipeur and bronze medallist Jeremy Ten, who both earned standing ovations in the second last skating group with remarkably strong free programs.

As I predicted, the women's event was the highlight of the competition. Two-time world bronze medallist Yu-Na Kim of South Korea was superb and took an early lead after the short program, while defending world champion Mao Asada of Japan ending up in sixth at that point in the competition.

Five-time Canadian champ Joannie Rochette was solid in both the short and free programs, coming second in both segments and easily earning silver.

For the free skate, the stands were packed with noisy Kim supporters and the building exploded when their favourite hit the ice in the warm-up. Overall, in this do or die situation, Asada rose to the challenge, winning the free skate and moving up the ranks to third overall.

Final stop this season is only six weeks away at the ISU World Figure Skating Championships taking place in Los Angeles with coverage on CBC starting on Tuesday, March 24.

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