Emanuel Sandhu

This was a strange competition, and probably will be remembered as the event where the silver medalist tore his trousers. Emanuel Sandhu won and said he was "in the zone" but if he looks at the video tape he surely will not be pleased with everything he sees. Jeff Buttle was second with a wonderfully conceived routine in which just about everything seemed to go wrong. There were only 0.66 points between the two. That’s less than the base value of a single Axel. The Canadian audience loved their top two men getting to the top of the podium but neither skated the performance they wished for.

Probably the only skater to fulfill their own expectations was the bronze medal winner, Nobunari Oda, the world junior champion, who was taking part in his first senior grand prix. He had been seventh in the short but was second in the long, receiving the highest technical marks, 2.94 more than Sandhu, who was judged second technically. However, Oda was given only sixth highest component score. Buttle was the top scorer for this mark with Sandhu second, Shawn Sawyer third, Johnny Weir fourth and Takeshi Honda fifth.

Sandhu performed to an original composition by Gorgon Cobb and, as usual, the choreography was unique. He began with a quad toe and although it was landed on two feet he got airborne for the triple toe. The base value of this move is 13.0 and although -1.80 was taken off because of the flawed first landing, he still banked 11.20. The Vancouverite who will turn 25 on November 18, quickly followed with a triple Axel which gained the base value of 7.5, and a Level 4 flying sit spin which earned 0.50 over the base value of 3.0. His triple Lutz earned the base value of 6.0.

His Salchow was planned as a quad but he did a good triple instead and received 1.0 added to the base value of 4.5. At the beginning of the time period when all jumps get an extra ten percent added to the value, he planned a second triple Axel with a triple toe. But it turned into a lone single Axel.

Back in the groove, he soared through a triple loop and, improvising, combined it with a triple toe which gained a slight positive GOE and earned him 10.3 points. Since the planned quad Salchow had turned into a triple, he changed the triple Salchow into a double Axel which was followed by a Level 4 change foot Upright spin and a triple flip. The next three moves, circular step sequence, camel spin and straight line step sequence were given only Level 1 but his final move, a change foot combination spin was level 3. These marks were enough for him to jump up from sixth after the short into first place

"I felt really serene and relaxed. At the end of the routine, I felt as if I was coming out of a trance." He was given a standing ovation and his coach, Joanne McLeod, shed tears of joy, but it is puzzling that someone who has "done change of edge spins since I was 11" and has always played around with interesting steps should throw away marks by doing three Level 1 moves. Sandhu was the defending Skate Canada champion.

He said this competition had been stressful. "I didn’t like having to come up from behind after the short. I didn’t like not getting my skates (the airline didn’t put them on his flight although they did eventually get to St. John’s) and I didn’t like almost paralyzing myself this morning in practice stroking into the barrier."

Buttle, who took away Sandhu’s national title last year and also outshone him at Worlds placing second to Sandhu’s seventh, begins with a unique move which foretells that this routine will be very different from anything he’s done before. While traveling on a back inside edge, he appears to be thinking or sleeping. The routine is a tribute to Canadian pianist and composer, Glenn Gould, and uses seven pieces of music meant to project scenes from Gould’s life. His grey costume, designed by Jef Billings, even has numbers on it depicting the years Gould was born and died.

The 23 year old who lives in Barrie, Ontario, training with Lee Barkell but also spends time in Lake Arrowhead taking instruction from Rafael Aratunian, started with a quad toe and fell. But that meant he got -3 taken off the base value of 9.0 in addition to the deduction of 1.0 for a fall. "I’m happy I went for the quad. In Japan (where he won an invitational) I skated better but I only did a triple. Here the errors came one after another. I need to train harder to be ready for France (his next Grand Prix)."

The following move, a triple Axel to triple toe sequence got a minus 2 because he stepped out of the first jump. Then he did some very interesting Ina Bauer and spread eagle moves before soaring into the three jump combination, triple Lutz to double toe to double loop which gained a positive 0.60 GOE added to the base value of 8.8. His Level 4 flying sit spin earned a 0.30 positive GOE added to that base value of 3.0. His circular step sequence was a Level 3 and gained 0.50 added to the 3.1 base value.

He was now at the point where the jumps earn a ten percent bonus. Unfortunately he popped to doubles the next two triples, Axel and loop, and after a Level 3 combination spin, he fell on the next jump and slid to the barrier. "I felt a bit sluggish on that second triple Lutz," he explained. His blade slashed his right thigh. "I’ve done that before. It did take the focus away from my skating." He did think briefly about stopping but decided, "The referee would blow her whistle is she though I should stop."

The situation was definitely distracting but he continued and executed a Level 4 sit spin. However, his straight line step sequence was given only Level 1 by the Technical Specialist, Viktor Petrenko and his assistant, Zuzana Zackova. He doubled his flip which received a -0.60 GOE but he rebounded with a triple Salchow to double toe which earned the base value plus ten percent, 6.4. His final move, the change foot combination spin in which the bloody gnash on his leg could easily be seen through the long tear in his trousers, was only Level 2 but it gained a positive GOE.

The 18 year old Oda also trains with Lee Barkell. He drew to skate first and presented an extended version of the routine which won him the world junior crown in Kitchener which is to music from Zatoichi, a Japanese movie. "Since short not that great, I didn’t think I would win a medal. I am happy," he said. Oda did not try a quad. He began with a triple Axel to triple toe to double loop followed by a triple Lutz to double toe and Level 4 flying sit spin. All but two of his moves got either the base value or better.

The 24 year old Takeshi Honda, who has lived in Canada for many years and is taught by Doug Leigh, was fourth in the free and dropped from third to fourth overall, only 1.28 behind his Japanese teammate. Had he improvised in a slightly different way, he could have won the bronze. He skated an emotional program to dramatic music from Puccini’s opera Tosca. He was dressed as the unfortunate hero with a white shirt made to look like it was rags.

Matt Savoie, who is trained by Linda Branan, fell on his first move, the triple loop, and although he recovered well with a triple Axel to triple toe, he reduced the difficulty of a couple of other planned jumps and dropped from fourth to fifth overall. The 25 year old from Peoria skated in brown to Benoit Jutras’ Journey of Man and music from Once Upon a Time in America and The Mission.

In sixth place although he was fifth in both sections was Shawn Sawyer, a 20 year old from New Brunswick who trains with Annie Barabe and Sophie Richard in Drummondville, Quebec. He skated with flair to the Warsaw Concerto by Richard Assinsel, beginning with a great triple flip to triple toe which had very good flow. However he made a mess of his triple Axel attempt which was downgraded to a double.

The 21 year old Johnny Weir, who skated last, had a disastrous time, spraining his left landing foot coming down from his first move which was to be his quad toe but ended up as a very good triple. "He held the landing a long time and I thought he was just going for extra GOE but he felt the pain and didn’t want to change position," said his career long coach, Priscilla Hill.

Though he singled his triple Axel, he accomplished a triple flip to double toe to double loop, a Level 3 change foot combination spin, and brought off his second triple Axel attempt although he had to do a double three turn to hold the landing. Then he fell on the triple loop. He managed a Level 3 sit spin but the circular footwork was poor and it was apparent to the audience that something was wrong. Gathering up all his strength he managed a triple Salchow to double toe but he aborted his triple Lutz. He got through his Level 2 footwork and two Level 3 spins, a combination and a flying sit.

He did a remarkable job considering the state of his foot. His eighth place in the free pulled him down from second to seventh overall. Min Zhang of China, who skated to Alexander by Vangalis, tried but fell on his quad toe and got negative GOE’s for nine of his 14 moves. The 29 year old who trains in Beijing with Haijun Gao was 16^th in the last world championships down from seventh the year before largely because the new system penalizes him harshly for his lack of spinning ability. Five of his six Level moves were 1 and the other was only 2. In St. John’s he stayed eighth although he was ninth in the long.

Andrei Griazev, a 20 year old pupil of Tatiana Tarasova, who was the 2004 world junior champion, is the number two Russian skater. However, he did not perform well in St. John’s finishing ninth out of the 11 competitors. He held that position from the short despite being tenth in the long. He stepped out of his first triple Axel and fell on the second. He performed to the soundtrack from Notre Dame de Paris.

Karel Zelenka, a 22 year old who is trained by his father in Italy was seventh in the free but couldn’t advance up from tenth. He skated to the same music as Zhang, Alexander by Vangalis. Jamal Othman, a 19 year old from Worb in Switzerland, who is trained by Jacqueline Kiefer, skated to El Amor Brujo by Manuel de Falla stayed on his feet and rounded out the field.

2005 Skate Canada Men's Medalists