Figure skatingFresh faces raised profile at Skate Canada

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The K-Rock Centre in Kingston, Ont., was the home of the Skate Canada International competition over the weekend. This was the second of six stops on the ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating series, which culminates in the top-six finishers being invited to the Grand Prix Final in Beijing, China, in December.

Both David Pelletier, my co-commentator on Bold, and I thought coming into this event that it would be the perfect opportunity to start to get to know some of the new faces whose Olympic journeys start now.

Starting with the pairs event, you got the feeling that you were seeing something special. The Russian team of Lubov Iliushechkina and Nodari Maisuradze were commanding in the short program, establishing the lead that carried them to the top of the podium.

Canadians Kirsten Moore-Towers and Dylan Moscovitch were the talk of the competition as their winning free program propelled them from fifth place after the short program to take the silver medal.

Arriving with confidence and a solid bag of tricks onto the senior international stage were the ultimate bronze medallists from Canada, Paige Lawrence and Rudi Swiegers.

The women's event started with a confident Cynthia Phaneuf from Canada taking the short program, only to succumb to nerves in the free and drop to fourth place overall. The title was claimed by American Alissa Czisny, who showed that a disappointing fourth-place finish in the short program was no reason to collapse in the free. She skated an elegant and almost flawless program to take top marks and the gold medal.

The silver went to Russian Ksenia Makarova, who was a solid second in both the short and free and is, undoubtedly, one of the hopes of her country's federation heading towards the Sochi Olympics in 2014.

Honourable mention has to go to the bronze medallist from Canada, Amelie Lacoste, who was poised and secure. With confidence oozing throughout her free program, she looked every inch a senior competitor who belonged on the podium at a Grand Prix event.

The men's event saw Canada's champion and two-time world silver medallist, Patrick Chan pull up from his fourth-place finish after the short program to win the free and take the title. Landing a beautiful quad toe loop, his program was not without problems, with a fall on the first of two triple Axels. The introduction of a quad toe loop in both his short and free programs, along with his exquisite and high-level skating skills, have helped Chan to set the bar very high this season.

The leader out of the short program was Japan's Nobunari Oda, the ultimate silver medallist, who looked renewed after an extremely disappointing 28th place finish at worlds in 2010.

Under the category of promising, actually very promising, is the bronze medallist from the United States, two-time junior world champion Adam Rippon. Adam has the ability to reach way out into the audience with a style that, although classical and refined, is by no means old-fashioned.

The final event taking the ice this past weekend was the ice dance competition. It got started on Friday with the short dance and the brother and sister team of Sinead and John Kerr of Great Britain taking the lead. Taking a one-hundredth of a point lead into the free dance on Canada's Vanessa Crone and Paul Poirier, they could not afford any errors. Kerr and Kerr did not have their typical skate and seemed to never really get into sync with one another and had to settle for the silver.

At the end of the day, it was Crone and Poirier's superb free dance, choreographed by legendary Christopher Dean to Eleanor Rigby, that clinched the gold. This is a program that, for me, transitions from one move to the next in such interesting and unusual ways as to make it a stand-alone on this season's ice dance stage. With four events still to be skated, I am interested to see if my impression lasts the rest of the Grand Prix season once the other key players, like Faiella and Scali from Italy, enter the race, as they will next week at the Grand Prix of China.

The bronze medal belonged to the American team of Madison Chock and Greg Zuerlein, who successfully stayed on the fringes of cutesy and campy without letting it overtake them and obliterate their skating. Their cabaret music was the perfect backdrop for this character-driven piece and showcased some very strong skating skills.

(Photo of Kirsten Moore-Towers and Dylan Moscovitch by Geoff Robins/Getty Images)

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