Dubé and Davison 3rd after short program
Salchow miscue costly
Last Updated: Saturday, November 21, 2009 | 12:12 AM ET
The Canadian Press
Canada's Jessica Dubé and Bryce Davison finished third in the pairs short program Friday at HomeSense Skate Canada International, their marks tumbling after Dubé singled a planned triple Salchow.
"We got a little bit on our heels, and everything was a little shaky after that," Davison said. "One major error and then the rest was pretty good."
World champions Aliona Savchenko and Robin Szolkowy of Germany skated to a commanding lead at the event in Kitchener, Ont., with their performance to Send in the Clowns, scoring 74.16 points.
Russians Maria Mukhortova and Maxim Trankov were second with 65.50, while Dubé, from St-Cyrille-de-Wendover, Que., and Davison, from Huntsville, Ont., were third at 57.90.
Skating to Requiem for a Dream, the Canadians were docked significant marks for their side-by-side triple Salchows when Dubé pulled up and only did a single, earning just 0.1 point for the element.
'I don't really know what happened'
"I felt really good, I guess my timing was a little bit too quick," Dubé said. "I don't really know what happened. I'll just do it tomorrow."
Davison said sometimes it's difficult to rebound from a mistake.
"When you make a major error, no matter what happens, it's hard to go right from that error and move on," he said. "As soon as you hit a bump, it can set you back a little bit. We didn't make any major errors after, we were just taken by surprise by it."
Anabelle Langlois of Hull, Que., and Cody Hay of Barrie, Ont., were fourth with 55.52 in their first Skate Canada appearance in two seasons. The two were sidelined all of last season after Langlois broke her ankle and underwent two surgeries.
Langlois and Hay, skating to Fascination, weren't without their mishaps. Going into a backward death spiral, Langlois's skate blade got caught on a hook on the bottom of Hay's pants.
Skate snagged
"I was trying to shake it off, when I didn't get it off the first two kicks I thought we might have to stop, but I got it free," Hay said.
Added Langlois: "That fluke in the middle, that's never happened and that kind of dragged something down. It's just in our head."
Savchenko and Szolkowy were definite crowd-pleasers at The Aud, dressed in the traditional makeup and black-and-white costumes of French clowns.
Still, the Germans weren't thrilled with their performance.
"I think the performance today was not bad, actually it was quite good, not perfect," Szolkowy said. "It was little bit slow, kind of tired, but very concentrated on the elements."
Later Friday, Canadians Joannie Rochette and Patrick Chan began defence of their ladies' and men's singles Skate Canada titles, and Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir took to the ice at the event for the first time in two seasons.
