Dec 18, 2014
Canadians claim gold in pairs and ice dance at GP Final
Canada came up big against the best of the best at the Grand Prix of Figure Skating Final winning three golds - two in the Senior final and one at the Junior level, which took place simultaneously. Meagan Duhamel and Eric Radford in the pairs and Kaitlyn Weaver and Andrew Poje in the ice dance, all had outstanding performances, posting their best total scores ever and winning in convincing fashions.
By Tracy Wilson
Canada came up big against the best of the best at the Grand Prix of Figure Skating Final winning three golds - two in the Senior final and one at the Junior level, which took place simultaneously.
Meagan Duhamel and Eric Radford in the pairs and Kaitlyn Weaver and Andrew Poje in the ice dance, all had outstanding performances, posting their best total scores ever and winning in convincing fashions. The last time Canada won gold at a Grand Prix Final in pairs and dance was in 2001 with Jamie Sale and David Pelletier and Shae-Lynn Bourne and Victor Kraatz.
The Junior events opened the show in Barcelona and the pairs gold was won by Julianne Seguin and Charlie Bilodeau with a flawless and touchingly emotional performance to Peter Gabriel's "In Your Eyes." After watching their performance, Duhamel and Radford passed by me backstage and Duhamel, clearly inspired by the young Canadian's skate said to high performance director Michael Slipchuk, "Now we know what we have to do tomorrow!"
What Canada's gold medal teams had to do to win was deliver their best ever. The kind of skate where one hits the elements with precision and ease and where one gets caught up in the music, the emotion and the audience. They all had those kinds of skates in Barcelona and it was quite remarkable.
Both pairs of Duhamel and Radford and Weaver and Poje had the skates and scores that align them perfectly in their quest for a shot at the top of the Worlds podium at season's end and, while they were expected to contend for gold here, what I find most surprising is the margin of points by which they won. The two teams went into the final in second on paper and in the end, Duhamel and Radford were ahead of the Olympic silver medalists Stolbova and Klimov of Russia by seven points and Weaver and Poje were ahead of their field by 14 points.
The secret to Duhamel and Radford's success is to go after the first mark by packing in technical difficulty and then delivering it under pressure. It's a big risk, but, as we saw in Barcelona, it comes with a big reward. They went into the free skate with a seven-point base value advantage over the top Russian team, which basically meant that their tricks were more difficult by seven points. Their big-ticket items are their triple lutzes and their throw quad salchow, which was their best to date in Barcelona.
Stolbova and Klimov could not make up the distance with their mastery and artistry this time and I will be interested to see what changes they might make to their strategy going forward. The Russian pair was not flawless at the final while Duhamel and Radford were, but that being said, technically, they are a significant way back. The Russians have some ground to make up and three months to do it. They will need to up the ante and add more rotations in the air to erase their jump disadvantage and control their destiny because the game changed in Barcelona and Duhamel and Radford are now in the driver's seat.
Also with a game-changing performance, Weaver and Poje totally exceeded my expectations at the final, particularly in the free dance. I expected them to improve, as has been their trend each year. They often start out a little rough around the edges early on in the season. What was surprisingly different for me this year was the way in which their normally gradual progression became an evolution in Barcelona. They performed a lyrical, versatile and commanding free dance. Their power came with ease and softness. Their expression and emotion was sensitive and heartfelt. They hit the elements and got the levels that they had missed in previous outings without looking calculated or careful. The knack they had was to weave the elements, especially the lifts, into the dance, so there were no breaks or awkward adjustments. It was a dance that swept the audience along with it. They finished ahead of the field by 14 points, which is considered a huge lead as dance tends to be judged more tightly than the other disciplines.
It looked like a World Championship performance, but with three months left in the season, it will be fun to see where they now take it.