Virtue and Moir, Osmond lead early at Canadian figure skating championships

OTTAWA – This week is about more than reeling off a record-tying ninth national title for Patrick Chan.

It’s also about his quest to recapture the carefree skater he was when he first embarked on building his skating legacy.

The three-time world champion from Toronto is the leader despite a shaky short program Friday night at the Canadian figure skating championships.

Chan, who turned 26 on New Year’s Eve, hopped out of the landings of both his quad toe-loop and triple Axel, and in the moments afterward talked about his efforts to rediscover some of his youthful innocence.

“That’s kind of the theme of this event,” Chan said. “When you’re 17, 16, myself included, you just get on the ice and do your jump, there’s no: what if this, what if that, but this, but that. You go out, do your job. It feels great so you strive for the feeling of how great it feels. But as you get older, that feeling tends to get old, so you start to think externally.

“My theme is going back to my 16-year-old self in a way, and shutting out all the outside noise and focusing on the present, and every step I take.”

Chan is poised to tie Montgomery Wilson’s record of nine Canadian titles won between 1929 and 1939.

Skating to The Beatles’ “Dear Prudence” and “Blackbird,” Chan scored 91.50 points on a night no skater was clean to take a lead of almost 10 points into Saturday’s free program.

Kevin Reynolds of Coquitlam, B.C., is second (81.76), while Elladj Balde is third (77.45).

Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir, in their first appearance at the event since 2014, have a hefty lead after the short dance, scoring 84.36 points — a Canadian best-ever score (Canadian records in domestic events don’t count internationally because the judging panel isn’t international).

Kaitlyn Weaver and Andrew Poje are second with 78.92, while Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier are third.

Two-time world champions Meagan Duhamel and Eric Radford lead after the pairs short program. Lubov Ilyushechkina and Dylan Moscovitch are second, while Kirsten Moore-Towers and Michael Marinaro are third.

Kaetlyn Osmond set the standard in the women’s singles short program.

The 21-year-old from Marystown, N.L., landed three huge triple jumps en route to 81.01 points — also a best-ever Canadian score — to take the lead into the free program.

Gabrielle Daleman of Newmarket, Ont., scored 75.04 for second, while last year’s champion Alaine Chartrand of Brockville, Ont., was third.

Chan is a far superior skater than he was a decade ago, and one of the strongest on the planet. The crunch of his blades as he carved through the ice was audible over his program’s music at TD Place Arena.

“Being able to combine both,” he said on his goal. “The huge improvement in skating skills and skating quality, with the mental approach of the younger self. That’s a perfect combo. That’s what I’m working on for worlds this year.”

Chan was a heartbreaking second at the Sochi Olympics, and admitted Friday that he’d lost the youthful, carefree side to his competing along the way. He took a season off after the Games, then launched a comeback last season.

“For sure. I kind of wish I had gone into this, seeing a sports psych and talking it through with everybody,” Chan said. “I think if that had happened, I could maybe have controlled things better (in Sochi), but you can’t change the past, you’ve got to look forward.”

The women’s singles event, meanwhile, will offer arguably the toughest competition of the four disciplines this week. Canada has just two entries each in women’s and men’s singles at the world championships in Helsinki in March, and Osmond, Daleman and Chartrand have been slugging it out for the past few years, swapping spots on the national podium.

“It’s great motivation,” said Osmond, who was third last season and didn’t make the team for the world championships in Boston.

“I want to compete well against them, obviously last year missing my world spot was really hard for me and I don’t want to feel that way this year, so having that really tight competition is really helping me stay on top of my game, and really reminding me that I need to focus really hard on doing what I can do and doing it the best I can.”

Canada has three entries in Helsinki in both ice dance and pairs.

Duhamel, from Lively, Ont., and Radford, from Balmertown, Ont., scored 80.72 points for their program to Seal’s “Killer.” The duo changed up their program after a disappointing bronze medal at the Grand Prix Final, taking out their more risky throw triple Axel and doing a throw triple Lutz instead.

“It’s heartbreaking,” Duhamel said of removing the Axel, which they’d been landing consistently.

“We kind of got the rug pulled out from under us, and (the Axel) went really wacky in the short program, and that shakes your confidence and it sinks your whole program,” Radford added. “When you’re against high-level competition and make those kinds of mistakes, we find ourselves in lower positions than we’re used to.”

Toronto’s Ilyushechkina and Moscovitch are second with 72.19 points, while Moore-Towers of St. Catharines, Ont., and Marinaro of Sarnia, Ont., scored 70.69 for third.