Bourne, Kraatz Win Dance
Skate Canada, the second Grand Prix competition of the figure skating season, ended Sunday with the only predictable 1-2-3 finish in the four events contested at Saskatchewan Place.
Canada’s Shae-Lynn Bourne and Victor Kraatz won the ice dance title to go two for two in the six-event Grand Prix series. Their free dance to a Michael Jackson medley earned marks of 5.8 and 5.9 (out of 6.0) for presentation and drew roars from the crowd of 7,872, part of a four-day event-record total of 31,487.
“Overall, it was just an exceptional week,” Kraatz said.
Galit Chait and Sergei Sakhonovsky of Israel were second, repeating the top two finishes at Skate America last week. Third place went to Isobelle Delobel and Olivier Schoenfelder of France, who train with Bourne and Kraatz in Newington, Conn., with Coach Tatiana Tarasova.
After performing in Sunday’s exhibition, U.S. and world champion Michelle Kwan was scheduled to take a few days off to recover from consecutive weekend competitions. Kwan won Skate America but was consigned to third place at Skate Canada after she fell on her first triple-triple combination and on the second part of a new triple-triple combination in her long program Saturday.
Kwan, who has worked alone since dismissing Frank Carroll, has also changed her routine and is often skating at the Skater’s Edge in Torrance instead of HealthSouth in El Segundo. She has been on the ice with her sister, Karen, and Karen’s fiance, Peter Oppegard, a 1988 Olympic pairs bronze medalist with Jill Watson. Karen Kwan and Oppegard are coaches.
