Notice that wicked burst of energy that rolled through the WinSport Arena in Calgary like a bolt of lightning at the Canadian National Skating Championships over the past two days?
That was Deanna Stellato-Dudek and Maxim Deschamps winning their second national pair title. Not perfect but sizzling nonetheless.
The twosome dominated the field, winning with 205.79 points over their closest rivals, Lia Pereira and Trennt Michaud, who were 11.83 points behind them.
Kelly Ann Laurin and Loucas Ethier celebrated on ice for their ebullient performance in the free and won a bronze medal, and chased Pereira and Michaud, earning 187.40 points to the silver medalists’ 193.14.
The rest of the field was 32 points and more behind the medalists, and note, the withdrawal of promising young pair Brooke MacIntosh and Benjamin Mimar took some of the lustre off the field.
Stellato-Dudek and Deschamps had some anxious moments when they won the short program by only .82 points over Pereira and Michaud, after a bumpty performance that was just not like them.
Deschamps had difficulties with his jumps, stepping out of a triple toe loop. And the crowd gasped when Stellato-Dudek skidded flat onto her face on a throw triple loop. A hard fall. She picked up air miles for it, but not ISU points.
Intrepid as always, Stellato-Dudek got back up and did a level-four change-combination spin, a line of footwork and a forward inside death spiral in their routine, Oxygene, a tribute to their hometown of Montreal, which will host the world championships in March.
In the short program, the forward inside death spiral was a required element, so Stellato-Dudek and Deschamps did a level four that was worth 3.80 points and with 1.14 GOE, they earned 4.94 for it.
This is easy peasy for the Canadian champs. Just to illustrate what this pair strives for: they do a far more difficult forward outside death spiral in the free program. Hardly anybody ever does a forward outside death spiral. Just think of what that looks like in practical terms: the woman on a forward OUTSIDE edge, gliding in a circle around the man to her INSIDE. It’s so easy to lose that edge. But Stellato-Dudek and Deschamps always tackle the most difficult elements possible.
The forward outside death spiral, at its finest level four of difficulty, is worth far more points than any other: 4.70. (A Skate Canada handbook pronounces the back outside death spiral the most difficult and it glosses over the forward outside. Who in their right mind would do it anyway? But the forward outside is worth more. That says it all.)
In the free program on Saturday, Stellato-Dudek and Deschamps performed the magical, rather nutsy forward outside death spiral, but got only a level one for it, which means its base value was 3.90. But still with .84 GOE, they earned a very nice 4.74 points for it. And if they hit a higher level – not easy – so much the better. Every little point counts in this game. They always set themselves up for more. Bombs away!
Stellato-Dudek said she was not entirely sure why the throw triple loop in the short program went the way of a summer breeze in Calgary. “We’ve done probably 100 throws in the last three weeks,” she said. She said they hadn’t gone smoothly enough at the Grand Prix Final, and they spent a lot of time fixing them. She’s going to have to watch that video.
In their dramatic “Interview with a Vampire” free skate, the Canadian pair wasn’t perfect either. They caught everybody’s attention with their giant opening triple twist at a level four (hard to get) and bonus marks of 2.40. But Deschamps again fumbled the jumps, turning out of a triple toe loop. It was the first part of a three-jump combination, so that jumbled up the timing. He did a single Axel, and then when it came to the final double Axel, Stellato-Dudek put her hands down on it. They lost 1.44 points on that.
Next the triple Salchow? Deschamps landed it on two feet and judges deemed he was a quarter turn short of rotation. They lost 2.09 points for that.
But that was the last of the minuses. Despite the miscues, they powered through the rest of the program. That throw triple loop was big, lofty and landed perfectly this time, earning two extra bonus points. An Axel lasso lift was worth a level four and 2.63 extra points and the reverse lasso was level four too, with 1.87 in bonuses. (The lifts are the big money-makers in a routine.) A throw triple Salchow in the second half was landed with gusto. Their final hip lift was only a level 3, but they finished that lift after the music ended.
“Mostly we are happy that we were able to come back from that really bad performance yesterday and show the work we have been doing on those throws,” Stellato-Dudek said. “They are very smooth landed throws and I was not going to back down on them after what happened yesterday.”
Deschamps said the second half of the routine was stronger than the first. He admitted his jumps weren’t great in the free, and they’ll go back home and work on it. “Well, I will work on it,” he said.
“We still have to be very proud of ourselves with everybody running after us,” he said. “It’s a new thing for us to be in that seat. For sure, it’s a new thing to learn.”
Stellato-Dudek said that now they have secured the second half of the routine, and it’s solid, the next step would be to clean up the first half before Four Continents Championships in China next month and for world championships – while maintaining the second half.
Regarding their slim lead after the short program, Stellato-Dudek exercised her mathematical muscles and said that they had the highest score of the entire season by a large margin. “We are our own biggest competitors,” she said. “All we have to do is our own job and I know what the outcome is going to be. So coming in here, we are close.”
Steallato-Dudek and Deschamps have their eyes focused beyond the Canadian scene. They look at the international scene to make their plans. The new Canadian champions top the international score standings this season on the total mark (214.64), and the free program (142.39). And they have the second highest scores in the short program (72.25), less than a point behind German team Minerva Fabienne Hase and Nikita Volodin at 72.56.
The second highest free skate score comes from Italians Sara Conti and Niccolo Macii (135.58), 6.81 points behind the Canadians. And the second highest total score of 206.43 comes from Hase and Volodin – 8.21 back of Stellato-Dudek and Deschamps.
The pairs event at the Canadian championships came close on the heels after the pair event at the European championships in Kaunas, Lithuania this week. And it showed that their competition will be three strong Italian teams, two German teams, a young Georgian team and a Hungarian team, Maria Pavlova and Alexei Sviatchenko that finished fourth at 194.02 and seemed to have been undermarked.
The European gold medalists are Lucrezia Beccari and veteran Matteo Guarise, who finished with 199.19 points, with Georgians Anastaiia Metelkina and Luka Verulava in with 196.14 and another Italian team Rebecca Ghilardi and Filippo Ambrosini, third at 195.68.
And don’t forget the reigning world champions Riku Miura and Ryuichi Kihara of Japan, whose top total score is the 224.16 they got at the World Team Trophy last year. They have been out of competition for months because of Kihara’s back. They won the Autumn Classic last September with only 188.05 points. But their world championship scores were 80.72 for the short program and 141.44 for the free, with a total of 222.16.
Pereira and Michaud, who won the Grand Prix of France this season and qualified for the Grand Prix Final, are seventh in the world with a total score of 194.67, eighth best in short program scores of 65.97 and ninth best in free skate scores (128.70).
Was it fun to cut it so short in the short program? “No, you want to have a [strong] lead going into the free,” Stellato-Dudek said. “It’s freezing cold here. I’m tired. It’s late. It’d rather have a lead,” she joked.
She admitted that Deschamps’ jumps were “a little squirrely,” although going through the program she didn’t know exactly what he did. She knew he didn’t land them, so moved on psychologically to the second half. “I’m happy that we were able to do that and he gave me what I needed on the throws and I was going to deliver on the landings.”
Pereira and Michaud, still only in their second year together, skated to “Gladiator” and made a few fumbles. Their triple toe loop – double Axel – double Axel jump sequence came with turns and two-foot landings. Michaud staggered out of a triple Salchow. Pereira fell on a throw triple Salchow. But their throw triple loop was strong, and they got level fours on everything else. Pereira ended the program stretched across Michaud’s shoulders. She patted him on the shoulder. Then the marks came.
They held off Laurin, 18, and Ethier, 23, who have just been coming into their own lately. At each element, Laurin celebrated with her face. Their triple twist was huge, but a level two. They maxed out their levels on two big Group 5 (most difficult) lifts. They earned the most bonus points on those two lifts. Their back outside death spiral (level two) moved directly into a pair combination spin. They skated to a David Wilson program to “You Don’t Own Me,” and “Independent Mind.” And it was gold.
They finished only 1.91 behind the two-time silver medalists, Pereira and Michaud and signaled good times ahead.
A trio of good junior pair teams will back them up in future.
Great report as always! Thank you, Bev.