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Lambiel Pulls a Sandhu
By Laurie Nealin
Reporting for Skate Canada
Victoria, B.C. -- Twice world champion and Olympic silver medalist,
Stephane Lambiel, pulled a Sandhu on Saturday at HomeSense Skate
Canada International, clawing his way back from a seventh-best short
program to the top of the Skate Canada podium.
Sandhu, one of Canada's top-ranked men, pulled off comebacks of
that magnitude at Skate Canada the two previous years. He was not
assigned to compete at this event this season.
Despite the win, the Swiss champion was far from his best -- the
triple Axel eluded him, he fell on one quad and flipped off the
landing of another and doubled a flip.
To finish on top, he needed help and he got it from his main two
rivals.
Japanese champion Daisuke Takahashi, who topped the field in the
short program, popped his quadruple into a wide open single, he
struggled to stay upright on the landing of one triple Axel, fell
flat off the take-off edge of the loop and crashed again on a flip
jump.
American Johnny Weir, second after the short, spun out on the landing
of his first triple Axel and doubled a loop and flip. He ranked
fourth in the free skate behind Canada's Shawn Sawyer.
When the battle ended, Lambiel emerged victorious with 210.70 points
to Takahashi's 208.21 and Weir's 198.70.
"After the short program, I was like, it's impossible to get
a medal. I was so far in seventh place. It was unbelievable today
to win this competition," Lambiel said.
"The first competition (of the season) is always a very hard
competition for me," he noted.
Due to a shortage of preparation time, Lambiel used last season's
Four Seasons program and brought his "Little Zebra" costume
out of the closet one more time. He plans to unveil his new modern
Flamenco free skate at the Grand Prix in Japan at the end of this
month.
Both Lambiel and Weir said they had little time to recuperate from
the demands of the 2006 Olympic season which had them crisscrossing
the globe from October through March. Performing in show tours kept
them on the road for most of the summer.
"I need more training time," said Weir, 22. "I'm
getting old for a figure skater. I haven't had that time of sitting
around in a shorty bathrobe on a lounge chair, sipping maitais."
Takahashi was unsure what caused his problems on Saturday. Through
an interpreter he said he had not made these mistakes in practice
this week.
"I felt rushed and frustrated after (the fall on) the loop,"
he said, noting he made the same mistake at the Campbell's invitational
last month.
Sawyer, twice Canada's national bronze medalist, had been sixth
after a fall in the short, but climbed two rungs with his entertaining
techno-pop program to music by Art of Noise. Sawyer, whose flexibility
is unmatched in the men's ranks, took full advantage of the upbeat
music, incorporating interesting dance movement into his choreography.
In total, he put 195.17 points on the board.
"I was nervous a little bit and at the start my legs were not
underneath me but I fought through it. Today was something to build
on. I landed my triple lutz. I haven't landed it in a long time
and it was my nemesis.
"Today I landed it in the second half (of my program) which
is worth more points," Sawyer said.
Thomas Verner, of the Czech Republic, who was third in the short,
dropped back to fifth in the final run.
Vaughn Chipeur, Canada's last-minute replacement for the injured
Jeff Buttle, wowed the crowd with a huge triple lutz to open. He
struggled with the triple Axel, but nailed four other triple jumps
to finish seventh in the 11-man field with 184.06 points.
"It's not every day you step on the ice and have a couple of
thousand people screaming for you. I wasn't quite prepared for a
competition of this scale," said Chipeur, who won bronze at
the Nebelhorn Trophy in Germany earlier this fall.
"I loved the energy. The building is great. You can't go out
there and be bored."
Marc-Andre Craig, who had not competed in a major international
event since 2004, rallied from a rough start in his finale to climb
from 10th in the short to eighth overall (168.32 points).
Skate Canada is the second stop on the ISU's six-country Grand Prix
circuit following last week's opener -- Skate America in Hartford,
Conn.
France's Yannick Ponsero, who finished sixth here, is the only singles
competitor scheduled to compete again next week in the third Grand
Prix event in Nanjing, China.
Competitors generally receive two GP assignments and earn points
based on their placements. The top six points-getters in each discipline
compete at the Grand Prix Final in St. Petersburg, Russia, in December
for $272,000 US in prize money.
Skaters winning gold medals here this week earn 15 points and $18,000
US, while silver medalists take away 13 points and $13,000. Third
place tallies 11 points and $9,000.
Copyright 2006 Laurie Nealin - This article may not be reproduced
in whole or in part without permission of the author.
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