Canada’s Virtue and Moir lead after short dance at world championships

<p>MOSCOW – It had been more than a year since Canada’s Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir had dazzled a crowd on figure skating’s biggest stage.</p> <p>Thankfully, that’s but a blip in their 14 years together.</p> <p>And from the moment they struck their opening pose – the sounds of a scratchy old vinyl record setting the mood – it was clear their chemistry never left them.</p> <p>The Olympic gold medallists are the leaders after the short dance at the world championships in a dramatic semi-season debut. They scored 74.29 points Friday for their elegant program that was a mix of tango and waltz, lowering their own world mark of 69.40 in a season their coaches suggested they skip altogether. </p> <p>”It would have been really hard to sit and watch this on TV, so we knew we wanted to be here,” Virtue said. “We’ve said several times this week that we can’t lose really, just the fact we’re here competing and feeling healthy and strong again, that’s why we do it. We do it because we love it.”</p> <p>Their world record score was no surprise as the mark is less than a year old – the International Skating Union did away with the compulsory and original dances after last season, replacing them with the short dance.</p> <p>The Canadians are making what amounts to a season debut six months after Virtue underwent a second surgery on her legs to alleviate chronic pain caused by compartment syndrome. </p> <p>”It would have been really hard to sit and watch this on TV, so we knew we wanted to be here,” Virtue said. “We’ve said several times this week that we can’t lose really, just the fact we’re here competing and feeling healthy and strong again, that’s why we do it. We do it because we love it.” </p> <p>They competed at the Four Continents championships in February, where they recorded their previous short program world record, but weren’t able to finish the event. Virtue, from London, Ont., and Moir, from Ilderton, Ont., had to pull out just 30 seconds into their free dance program when Virtue felt tightness in her thigh.</p> <p>”Before Four Continents, I think I was a little bit concerned that it would take a while to find that rhythm again, having been almost a full year since we’d competed, but at the drop of the hat we were right into it and it didn’t feel like we missed a beat,” Virtue said. “I think that says a lot about our training and about the experience we’ve had in the last several years.”</p> <p>Americans Meryl Davis and Charlie White are second with 73.76, while Nathalie Pechalat and Fabian Bourzat of France scored 70.97 to leave them third.</p> <p>Kaitlyn Weaver and Andrew Poje of Waterloo, Ont., are seventh, recording 65.07 points, while Vanessa Crone of Toronto and Paul Poirier of Aurora, Ont., scored 61.01 points to leave them 10th.</p> <p>A post-Olympic season, said Moir, can be a grind of just trying to survive, and the world championships often reflect that. But Virtue and Moir are thinking more thrive than survive after their long break from the ice.</p> <p>”This one is the peak of our year, and it’s a little bit more exciting and less work,” Moir said. “We’re excited to skate, and moments like that make us really happy, that’s why we can’t sit at home and watch this from home.”</p> <p>Virtue, 21, and Moir, 23, have achieved more in a few years than most skaters do over a career. They were the youngest ever Olympic ice dance gold medallists, and the first North Americans. They also have a world championship medal in every colour.</p> <p>This up-and-down season is more about personal goals.</p> <p>”A lot of people didn’t think it was necessary for us to skate this year, we wanted to skate, Tessa had to go through a second major surgery, and I think people don’t understand quite what that surgery includes and how hard the road back is,” Moir said. “We’re skating for us and we’re going to go out there and skate for each other and skate because we love to.”</p> <p>The surgery involves cutting open the compartment around her muscles, much like slicing open the casing of a sausage, and left her with small circular scars that line her lower legs.</p> <p>Virtue and Moir said they drew inspiration from teammate Patrick Chan’s performance this week.</p> <p>”How can you not be pumped? It almost pumps you up too much. Good thing it wasn’t in the same day,” Moir said, a day after Chan won the men’s title in world-record fashion.</p> <p>”I was doing junior Grand Prixs with the kid in 2003 and 2004 and it’s been a long road, and to see him dominate so fiercely this week was really a highlight. It’s so special to be on the team with him when he does that.</p> <p>”I can’t remember a time a time in men’s history when someone has dominated like Patrick. It’s really exciting.”</p> <p>They relaxed earlier Friday by watching the Royal Wedding on TV.</p> <p>”I saw them walk out of the church – actually Andrew Poje and I, if you can imagine that scene, sat down and watched it together. It was interesting,” Moir said with a laugh.</p> <p>Weaver and Poje skated an entertaining program to music from “At Last” by Etta James, and Irving Berlin’s “Cheek to Cheek.” They suffered a wardrobe malfunction midway when the tight bun in Weaver’s blond hair came loose. She gave it a sharp tug, leaving a long braid that whipped Poje in the face a few times.</p> <p>”I was thrown off for a second, I was thinking, ‘Oh no, my hair is falling out,’ that’s kind of distracting,” Weaver said. “But we had our hardest elements coming up, and I said, ‘You know what, I need to get it out of my brain and focus.”</p> <p>Saturday’s long programs for both the women and the ice dancers wrap up the world championships.</p>