Friday, January 11, 2002
Bourne, Kraatz not worrying about judging at Olympics
By RYAN PYETTE -- London Free Press
HAMILTON -- Sure, they're getting more than enough high marks now at the Canadian figure skating championships.
But since the voting bloc fiasco in Nagano in 1998, there's always the worry the numbers will fall for Chatham's Shae-Lynn Bourne and partner Victor Kraatz at next month's Olympics in Salt Lake City.
In their first appearance this week, Canada's famous ice dance duo racked up plenty of 5.9s for their two numbers -- the Ravensburger Waltz and a blues number -- last night during senior compulsories at the Chedoke arena.
But with no North American judges and a lot of Eastern European countries scheduled to call the Salt Lake action, the question remains whether they will have to settle for fourth one more time.
"It's out of our control and stressing over it won't help our skating," said Bourne, 25. "It's like waiting for the decision of the judge in a courtroom. You wonder if they're going to say 'Innocent' or `Guilty,' but you don't know, so you just have to wait and find out what the decision will be."
Since they were left off the podium in the Nagano Olympics, most Canadian fans have embraced the pair.
"We feel it, not just for the Olympics, but you feel the passion and pride of skating for Canada all the time," said Bourne. "It's a great honour, and we always look forward to it. The people who come watch have always been great to us."
Bourne and Kraatz are first after the compulsories. The senior original dance goes tomorrow, at 3 p.m. at Copps Coliseum, while the free dance is Sunday.
That's when they will roll out their now-famous routine skated to a medley of Michael Jackson songs.
Winning this week is a foregone conclusion for Bourne and Kraatz. They have won eight of the past nine senior national titles (they missed the 2000 competition in Calgary because Bourne had a knee injury).
Hamilton has been particularly good to the pair. They won their first Canadian senior title here in 1991.
"I didn't get home for Christmas because of training, so I'm glad it's here," she said, "so my mom and family will be here to visit me."
With Bourne and Kraatz virtual no-brainers to earn the top spot on Canada's Olympic ice dance team Sunday, there looks to be a fierce battle shaping up for the second Olympic berth between Quebec pair Patrice Lauzon and Marie-France Dubreuil, the 2000 Canadian champs, and Vancouver's Megan Wing and Aaron Lowe, who live in Windsor and train in Detroit.
Ilderton ice dance cousins Danny and Sheri Moir skated smoothly, earning a sixth-place result.
"It's been a long day but I thought we skated the best two of those (compulsories) that we have in a long time," said Sheri, 20. "We just wanted to skate clean, good programs and we managed to do that.
The marks for the two dances ranged from the mid-fours to five.
"We were nervous during the practice session, but it quickly passed," added 21-year-old Danny. "As a first day, we're happy with the way it went. The marks are out of our control. We can just skate and hope for the best."
STOJKO, SANDHU CLOSE
Elvis Stojko and Emanuel Sandhu will be Canada's two men's singles skaters at the Olympic Winter Games next month but what remains to be decided is which one goes to Salt Lake City as national champion.
We find out tomorrow night.
The table was set for a thrilling conclusion to the men's event at the 2002 nationals last night when Sandhu edged Stojko in the short program phase of competition. Stojko was second in the short. On the strength of his qualifying session win Tuesday, he sits first overall -- barely.
Nobody else was in the same league as Stojko and Sandhu, who both are from Richmond Hill. Jayson Denommee of Sherbrooke, Que., was third in the short and is third overall.
with files from Canadian Press
2002 Games Figure Skating Coverage
