Chan has big lead after men’s short program at Canadian Championships; Rochette trails Phaneuf

Chan, Phaneuf lead after short programs

LONDON, Ontario — Patrick Chan overcame a couple of mistakes to win the men’s short program by a large margin at the Canadian Figure Skating Championships on Friday night.

The reigning world silver medalist from Toronto scored 90.14 points, despite putting a hand down on a triple flip, then doubling a planned triple-flip on the back end of a combination.

The 19-year-old Chan, who had already secured a spot at the Vancouver Olympics next month, took a commanding lead on Vaughn Chipeur heading into Sunday’s free skate. Chipeur earned 78.87 points with his clean program and Joey Russell was third with 74.04.

In the women’s competition, five-time defending champion Joannie Rochette fell during her short routine and trailed Cynthia Phaneuf heading into the long program. Phaneuf scored 66.30 points to win the short program ahead of Rochette, who received 64.15 points after her spill.

“Stuff like that happens and you have to deal with it,” said Rochette, who fell on her opening triple Lutz. “But I was still able to get a good score to be in a good position for the free skate and that’s what a short program is for — at least in my case.”

Amelie Lacoste was third with 53.99 points.

Rochette also trailed Phaneuf at last year’s Canadian championships before bouncing back in the long program to win her fifth straight title. Rochette, the world silver medalist, has already clinched one of the two women’s singles spots on Canada’s Olympic team.

Phaneuf, the 2004 champion, knows maintaining a lead through Saturday’s long program won’t be easy.

But then, the veteran said earning a ticket to Vancouver is her main goal.

“I’m not going to say I was not thinking about (winning the title), but I’m coming here to get to the Olympics, and this is my goal,” Phaneuf said. “For sure I’m not going to think about it when I’m doing my program, but I’m coming here for nothing else but that.”

Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir stretched their sizable lead in ice dance, scoring 70.15 in the original dance to take an overall score of 114.13 into Saturday’s free dance.

“I definitely wouldn’t say perfect, there were already some areas we wanted to improve, but it was a great step for us,” Virtue said. “It was just about as good as we could have done today.”

With just two Olympic berths open in each of the four disciplines, just .02 points separates second and third place in dance. Kaitlyn Weaver and Andrew Poje were second with 94.79 points, just ahead of Vanessa Crone and Paul Poirier.

“We always have to treat every day like it’s the next toward the Olympics because it is,” Poje said. “We have to make sure we’re on that path because that’s one of our goals in life and we want to make sure we achieve that.”

Annabelle Langlois and Cody Hay won the pairs short program with a score of 65.47 points. Defending champions Jessica Dube and Bryce Davison were second with 62.87 points, while Meagan Duhamel and Craig Buntin were third with 62.38.

Canada’s two entries in pairs for the Olympics will be up for grabs in Saturday’s free program.