Tuesday, January 8, 2002
Young takes top spot in men's senior singles qualifying
HAMILTON (CP) -- Nicholas Young, acting out the role of a vampire, sank his teeth into the Canadian figure skating championships Tuesday and emerged in first place in his men's senior singles qualifying group.
The 19-year-old St-Hubert, Que., skater showed he's capable of stepping onto the podium by the time all is said and done Saturday night.
Young outperformed Jayson Denommee of Sherbrooke, Que., the silver medallist last winter, in the qualifying session.
"It was a good start to the week," he said.
Young finished seventh overall a year ago, and he has made significant improvements, notably in his artistic side, this season.
Richmond Hill, Ont., veterans Elvis Stojko and Emanuel Sandhu, who skated in a second group later Tuesday, remain the favourites, and Young must now be considered along with Denommee, and Ben Ferreira of Edmonton, as a strong candidate for the other podium spot.
Young won the national junior title two years ago, and he competed on the junior Grand Prix circuit this season, posting fifth- and third-place finishes in his two competitions. The latter, in the Netherlands, was "a breakthrough performance" for Young, says choreographer Jean-Francois Hebert.
"He's no longer in a shell," said Hebert, who competed on Canada's national team until retiring from the top competitive level two years ago. "From where we started, and to where he is now, it's a big, big change.
"He used to jump, skate a little, jump, skate a little, jump . . . it was not enough artistically."
Young has become a more complete skater since hooking up with coach Josee Picard and Hebert at Arena Ste-Julie, Que.
Part of his physical conditioning involves attaching weights to his ankles and pushing hockey nets around the rink. He stands only five foot five, but he's wiry and strong. His stamina quotient is at a new high after all the work.
"Sometimes I look like an ox on the ice with the weights," he said.
All he has to do now is master the difficult triple Axel with more consistency. It's coming.
"It's like having a car," he explained. "It's not a rust bucket, and I can actually turn it now."
Denommee has been bothered by shin splints for five years. The left leg is giving him trouble this season, forcing him out of scheduled meets in Austria and Russia. This is his first serious competition since Winnipeg.
"It's OK but not exactly what I expected to do," he said after numerous mistakes and a fall. "I was really apprehensive."
He's had bad luck in previous competitions in Copps Coliseum.
"I'm one of the old ones here," he said. "It feels weird saying that, being 24. But there are a lot of great up-and-coming skaters in Canada and I think everybody is going to try to pull out their best tricks this week.
"You're going to see Emanuel and Elvis, obviously, battling to be the best. Ben is there. You can see all these guys in practice -- they're amazing skaters. Hopefully, I'm going to try to be one of those. I'm going to give it everything I've got."