Glad to be on road again
Langlois and Archetto look to rebound at worlds in Dortmund
By TERRY JONES, EDMONTON SUN
DORTMUND, Germany -- Willkommen zu den Weltmeisterschaften 2004 in der Dortmunder Westfalenhalle. There have been prettier places to hold the World Figure Skating Championships than this northern industrial centre which has so little to brag about it gets half of page 376 in my 582-page travel guide to Germany.
It's not Nice. Or Paris. Or Prague. Or Munich.
But for Edmonton Royal Glenora pairs skaters Anabelle Langlois and Patrice Archetto, the pair who are attempting to carry the torch tossed to them by Jamie Sale and David Pelletier, a tandem which is trying to keep Canada's 22-year run of putting people on the podium at Worlds alive, anywhere away is OK.
The pair finished fourth at the Grand Prix Final this season. But when we last left them, at Canadians in Edmonton followed by Four Continents in Hamilton, they were a major mess, the same condition their condition was in when they soiled the sheets at Canadians in Saskatoon last year, only to finish fifth at Worlds.
"I guess, if you have to pick one or the other, we'd rather do well in the World Championships and the Grand Prix Final,'' said Archetto.
SAVING CANADIAN BACON?
You'll drink to that if the two nail the short program, which opens the championships here tomorrow, and end up on the podium after the long on Wednesday to take the heat off the either very, very good or very, very bad Emanuel Sandhu to save the Canadian bacon here.
Weird the way it's worked.
"We're not the only ones,'' said Langlois.
"Our choreographer, Nikolai Morozov, was the choreographer for Alexei Yagudin when he won four world championships. Morozov told us that Alexei didn't win one Russian national championship in all that time,'' said Langlois.
"And Fumie Suguri of Japan has the same story. She's won the last two bronze medals in women's at Worlds and she's still yet to become the Japanese champion.
"We don't know why. We love competing in Canada. We love having the home crowd,'' says Langlois of winning bronze, bronze, silver and silver at the last four Canadians while the duo were establishing themselves as a top team on the planet away from home.
Archetto figures it's a mental condition.
"I think we think, 'It's only Canadians' so we'll try something to see if it works. We wouldn't do that on the international scene. On the international scene there's no room for mistakes.''
Coach Jan Ullmark thinks it's just the opposite.
"I think they think too much. They went into Canadians in Edmonton thinking they had to win. They forgot they had to skate, too.''
AS GOOD A PLACE AS ANY
Whatever, it's time for them to willkommen the Worlds again. And this is as good a place as any.
"The best thing about this season is there's been so much time between Canadians and Worlds,'' she says.
"It gave us a chance to regroup.''
Archetto says if they had to do the season all over again, they wouldn't go so hard.
The two skated in a Grand Prix points event in Paris and another in Japan as part of a schedule which was front-loaded with pre-Christmas events like none they'd ever attempted.
"It wasn't the smartest thing,'' he says.
Ullmark agrees. But with the ISU deciding what events skaters compete in this year as opposed to their selecting their own schedule, as Sale and Pelletier always did, it's a different deal.
"They had four major competitions in six weeks. That was a lot more than anybody else. And having the Grand Prix Finals before Christmas for the first time, that was hard on all the skaters.''
The two haven't ripped their programs to pieces but have dropped a double-Axel side-by-side jump and added a triple-loop in tandem to give them two triples instead of one.
"Mostly we just trained and trained and trained and trained,'' she said.
"We went back to working on the little things, repetition and polishing.''
Ullmark says whatever it is with these two, if they just skate, they'd do great.
"They're skating fine,'' said the coach.
"I told them when we left Edmonton that when we got here, the No. 1 thing they have to do is be themselves.
"They've had plenty of time to feel crappy about themselves. It's time to move on and do something again to feel good again.
"We're in a process here. The goal is the 2006 Olympics.''
There are going to be peaks and valleys. It's time for another peak.
