Dube, Davison skate to silver at Four Continents

Monday, January 5, 2009

Dube, Davison skate to silver at Four Continents

By Lyndon Little, Canwest News Service

Photograph by: Matthew Stockman, Getty Images

Jessica Dube and Bryce Davison skate in the Pairs Free Skate during the ISU Four Continents Figure Skating Championships at Pacific Coliseum February 5, 2009 in Vancouver, Canada.

VANCOUVER — Perhaps David Pelletier, the 2002 Olympic pairs gold medallist, said it best: If you’re going to come second in any competition it might as well be to a team like China’s Qing Pang and Jian Tong.

Canadian champions Jessica Dube and Bryce Davison skated another superb performance Thursday in the free skate portion of the Four Continents figure skating championships at the Pacific Coliseum. But the talented Chinese duo of Pang and Tong refused to leave the door open even a crack and hung on to their lead to repeat as Four Continents champions.

Pang and Tong claimed the gold with a total two-segment score of 194.94 points to 185.62 for Dube and Davison both of Drummondville, Que., who took the silver. The other world-class Chinese entry of Dan Zhang and Hao Zhang earned the bronze with 174.98 points with the order of finish among the three podium teams unchanged from Wednesday’s short program.

“We’re very happy with our performance here this week,” said the 23-year-old Davison.

“We’ve been waiting all season for a short program like we did here. We’ve been pleased with our training and it has shown in our results here.”

Canada’s other two pairs entries both struggled Thursday.

The duo of Craig Buntin of Kelowna, B.C., and partner Meagan Duhamel, of Lively, Ont., placed sixth in the free skate. But they had built up enough points in their strong short program to hang on to fourth overall with 168.43 points. However, Mylene Brodeur of Stanbridge Station, Que., and John Mattatall of Saint Leonard, Que., who were sixth after the short, had only the eighth best free skate and dropped to eighth overall with a total of 149.85.

Skating first in the final group Dube and Davison made no major errors with a passionate number skated to music from the opera Carmen. They nailed all their side-by-side jumps and even got a positive grade-of-execution mark (plus .28) on their triple twist, which is a new element for them this season.

However, their Chinese opponents left no room at all with a sublime performance of their own. Their throws seemed to cover half the width of the ice and their signature huge triple twist earned a grade of execution of plus 1.40. Their only slight slip up came on one of their side-by-side spins where the Chinese pair got a bit out of unison.

Still, it represented another strong push back effort for Dube and Davison after a somewhat disappointing season which saw the 2008 world bronze medallist fail to qualify for the Grand Prix final.

Dube and Davison are coached by Annie Barabe in Contrecoeur, Que., but the pair have been receiving extra help from both Pelletier and his partner Jamie Sale. The Edmonton-based couple point out the little things that can make a difference among the world’s pairs elite. Sale and Pelletier also give help with the look the Quebec couple display on the ice.

“They’re coming along great with their sense of on-ice connection,” praises Pelletier. “I can tell just by looking into their eyes whether they’re on or not.”

Pang and Tong are on a comeback journey of their own. The 2006 world champions slipped to fifth last year in Sweden where Zhang and Zhang grabbed the silver. But the previous order has been restored this season with Pang and Tong resuming their lead in the domestic rankings — although part of that may be due to a knee injury to Dan Zhang that has hampered their training.

“We were excited to come to Canada, especially because this building is the Olympic venue,” said Tong. “We wanted to skate well here and we’re happy to meet those expectations.”

“My knee is still bothering me and it limited me from training some of my jumps here,” admitted Dan Zhang. “We’re hoping that, before worlds, I can go home and get some therapy on it.”

• Canadian champions Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir won the original dance Thursday to increase their overall lead.

Virtue and Moir, both of London, Ont., who won the compulsory dance Wednesday, also claimed the original dance with a score of 60.90 points. In second place once again are the newly crowned American champions Meryl Davis and Charlie White with 60.42 points.

Third place in the original dance went to the No. 2 American entry of Emily Samuelson and Evan Bates with 59.48 points. Fourth place went to Canada’s young team of Vanessa Crone of Aurora, Ont., and Paul Poirer of Unionville, Ont., with 56.36 points.

After two of the three dance segments, Virtue and Moir have the overall lead with a total of 97.30 points. Davis and White are second with 95.65 while Samuelson and Bates have replaced Crone and Poirer in third with 90.89 points.

The final ice dance segment — the free dance — will be skated Friday afternoon.


Vancouver Sun

llittle@vancouversun.com
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