VICTORIA, British Columbia (AP) — Two-time world silver medallist Patrick Chan won his fourth consecutive Canadian figure skating title Sunday, landing two quad jumps and scoring a world-best overall 285.85 points. The 20-year-old Toronto skater, performing to Andrew Lloyd Webber's "Phantom of the Opera," earned 197.07 points for the free skate. Shawn Sawyer was second with 229.09 points. "If this was a year ago, he'd be an Olympic champion," four-time world champion Kurt Browning said. Chan rattled off two picture-perfect quad toe loops — one in combination with a triple toe loop — to open his program, and by the time he was turning in his final spin, the fans were already on their feet. "That was the reaction I wanted when I was at the Olympic Games, that's what I dreamed about every time I was going to bed every night before the Olympics," said Chan, fifth last year in Vancouver. "I finally got it. It wasn't exactly the same situation, but you know what, I'm going to take it and that's going to be one of my most memorable moments for sure, hands down." Chan's performance left coaches and officials scrambling over notes trying to calculate his score. "You're kind of spellbound," said Mike Slipchuk, Skate Canada's high performance director. "It wasn't just two quads, it was everything. Every element was done to perfection. It's kind of scary when (he) finishes, and we have no idea what the score is going to be because we've never seen that before." His overall points topped his own world best of 268.02 he set at last year's Canadian championships, but it won't be recognized as a world record by the International Skating Union because it's a domestic event. Chan admitted the skate was a career best, but added: "There's more to come. "Forget about technically, technically I think I've got it covered," he said. "I think I want to work on the quad flip for next year, I was throwing it around in Colorado and everyone was like, 'Oh yeah, you could do a quad flip easily from the looks of your triple,' so I think I trust them enough to try." Vanessa Crone and Paul Poirier won their first national senior ice dance title, scoring 98.41 points for their performance to The Beatles' "Eleanor Rigby," for 164.21 points overall. Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. We've updated the Conversation Guidelines. Changes include a brief review of the moderation process and an explanation on how to use the "Report Abuse" button. Read more. |
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