LETHBRIDGE, Alta. – Over the course of four-and-a-half stunning minutes Saturday night, Patrick Chan answered any questions about his competitive comeback.
Canada’s three-time world champion was golden once again, winning Skate Canada International in his first major competition since the Sochi Olympics.
“Pretty, pretty high stress and challenging competition for me,” said Chan, who wiped his eyes in disbelief after his struck his final pose.
The 24-year-old from Toronto, who was second heading into the night, battled nerves in the moments before his skate. But he talked it over with coach Kathy Johnston, and went out and laid down a beautiful long program to music Frederic Chopin, that included a huge quad toe loop and triple Axel, for a total 271.14 points.
“I stepped on the ice and skated with no thought of who’s around, who’s watching, just really skating,” Chan said. “Because it feels good to skate for myself, and physically, it’s a great feeling when you go out and do what you’ve been doing day after day.”
The event was billed as the rematch between Chan and Japan’s Yuzuru Hanyu, who beat Chan for gold at the Sochi Olympics, the Canadian’s last major competition before his comeback.
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Hanyu, sixth after a shaky short program, roared back to win silver with 259.54. Japanese teammate Daisuke Murakami claimed bronze with 252.25. Toronto’s Nam Nguyen was fifth.
The gold was No. 3 on the day for the Canadian team.
Reigning world champions Meaghan Duhamel and Eric Radford won the pairs, while Kaitlyn Weaver and Andrew Poje won the ice dance.
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While Hanyu competed last season, winning silver at the world championships, Chan spent most of his year-and-a-half off travelling and performing on pro tours.
He looked shaky in his short program Friday, but said nervous excitement got the better of him.
“I was thinking too much about ‘I want to show people that I’m back and I’m excited, and I have all my jumps back. I’m here,'” he said. “There’s that excitement, kind of like that puppy with all his friends, who’s really excited to be there. That became a little hard to control.”
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He clearly had it under control Saturday, looking as if he’d never left. Chan earned massive grade of execution scores — scores that are added on to the base amount for each element. His component scores — the artistic scores under the old judging system — were head and shoulders above the field.
In pairs, Duhamel, from Lively, Ont., and Radford, from Balmertown, Ont., skating to Adele’s “Hometown Glory,” won gold by a huge margin, scoring 216.16 points despite a botched triple toe loop-triple toe loop combination.
“We were pretty nervous going out there today,” Radford said. “I don’t know if we can really put a finger on why. . .we were both feeling the same thing, a little out of our bodies, not as centred as we normally are.
“So to go out there and skate like that, I think we relied a lot on our experience in this skate, and I think we literally brought it all together while we were skating. We were literally making it happen in this program versus sometimes when you just let it all happen and it happens perfectly.”
Russia’s Evgenia Tarasova and Vladimir Morozov were second with 191.19, while Kirsten Moore-Towers of St. Catharines, Ont., and Michael Marinaro of Montreal won bronze (174.85).
Weaver and Poje scored 173.79 points to claim ice dance gold. American siblings Maia and Alex Shibutani were second with 168.36, while Ekaterina Bobrova and Dmitri Soloviev of Russia claimed the bronze with 161.11.
Earlier, American Ashley Wagner ran away with gold in women’s singles.
Wagner was the class of the women’s field, scoring 202.52 points with an almost flawless program to music from “Moulin Rouge” that included seven triple jumps.
“It was practice for me and an opportunity to train the program under pressure for nationals and worlds, which are my main focuses this year,” said Wagner, a three-time U.S. national champion.
“To go out and deliver that performance and receive that score, with the mistakes that I had, I think that’s a really good sign for things to come this season, and I think that for me it’s just really going to be about keeping my head on straight, doing that over and over and over again.”
Russia’s reigning world champion Elizaveta Tuktamysheva moved up from seventh after the short program to finish second with 188.89, while Yuka Nagai of Japan won bronze (172.92).
Gabrielle Daleman of Newmarket, Ont., finished fifth, while Veronik Mallet of Sept-Iles, Que., was ninth.
Kaetlyn Osmond dropped from fourth to 11th, falling four times in her long program. The 19-year-old from Marystown, N.L., is making a comeback after a gruesome broken leg sidelined her for all of last season.
“It just wasn’t my day apparently,” Osmond said.
The two-time Canadian champion had a rough week, crashing into the boards in Thursday’s practice, then falling hard into full splits in Friday’s short program.
“Physically, I’ve felt better,” Osmond said. “It’s been a hard week. . . I’ve been doing lots and lots of treatment while I was here. I’m sure in my subconscious it was probably playing in the back of my mind that whole program.”
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