By Amy Mossman
Day One - 1/6/98
During the early afternoon I ran into some other Jayson fans and we formed our Jayson Denommee fan and agony group. And it was agony. He looked MISERABLE. Pale and coughing and using the inhaler and I even saw him thumping his chest. He didn't actually seem to be skating too badly but he looked so unhappy. Tearing of hair and renting of garmnets proceeded in the Jayson enclave. Ah, we really know how to pick em. Hoepfully he just was tired from arriving in a delayed flight or something. We went to the secondary practice rink, Chedoke, that evening for the second men's practice but no Jayson, or many other skaters for that matter.
Day Two - 1/7/98
Senior Men was why we schlepped over to Chedoke. The Quebec group was first. Daniel Bellemare is in this group but has still not shown. Also in this group, for some reason, is Matthew Williams, whom I have yet to see land a triple flip. But, mostly it was time for the two JAC (Jayson Agony Corner) people to go into overdrive. He was looking miserable and I think we disected the meaning of evey cough and gasp for breath. But, once again, I thought he was skating better than he phsycially looked. I also thought he must have been stretching or taking dance since Skate America, much better extension and carriage.
Back to Copps Coliseum where the men practiced again but the Denommee fan club was happy. He practiced well and seemed to have shaken off whatever was bothering him before. He was smiling and joking with his coach and generally skating well. I saw a first from him, a very high and nice triple lutz-triple loop combo. Ah-ha. That's why he stayed to watch Tara at Skate America. He also tried a less successful triple loop-triple loop combo.
Day Three - 1/8/98
As per usual, I have no idea how anyone in Jayson Denommee's group is skating. Practice didn't look great for him, lots of coughing and grimacing. Can only hope for good things tonight in the short program.
The Men's Short was pretty much a splatfest. Jayson skated in the last group, right after Stokjo. My friend Mary, who is the big Elvis fan, and I were pretty stressed out in the last group, nervous for our favourites and also how we would manage to get down 17 rows to the ice to toss flowers for her and my hedgehog. I did manage it, in fact, you can see a little grey furry thing fly onto the ice behind Jayson on the TV coverage. Mary's flowers got a little lost in the debris, though.
For the program, he started out selling it great but fell on the 3 axel, got up and did a 2 toe. After that he got a bit deflated but landed the 3 lutz and 2 axel, but got tired at the end.
Melange of Final Three Days 1/9-11/98
I was very tired over the last few days so my notes are jumbled. First up comes the story of the bus crash. Okay, maybe not a Crash but an accident. We got onto the bus heading up to Chedoke. When we got on, Josee Norman was sitting in the front seat. Cynthia and Jan Ullmark got on right after us and, as the bus started to pull away, a few people ran to catch it and Micheal Jiranek got on. I couldn't believe it, I was in some kind of skating heavan. I whispered to Catherine "If there is a bus crash it will be the end of Canadian skating." I jinxed it. Heading up the hill, a taxi stopped suddenly in front of us and we rear ended it. Josee was sitting up front and partially turned backwards. She was jostled forward and could have been a bit more hurt if we had been going faster. The taxi and bus driver got out and discussed it all at great length and everyone on the bus seemed to take it well. I ended up chatting a bit with Cynthia Ullmark about the accident when I totaled my first car and Josee took it all as a big joke, esp. as the taxi driver was a woman.
Jayson's practices before the long were up and down again. Still lots of coughing and hanging over the boards looking tired and worn. As I got more tired my practice notes became more scattered so some of this goes on memory folks.
Saturday of the long program the practice schedule got a very strange re-arrangment with the final group of men practicing AFTER the afternoon competition and before the men's long started. The rest of the men had practiced much earlier in the day. I think this was due to the splitting of the pairs into 4 groups instead of 3 and the subsequent shifting in that but it was a strange decision to make. The men were practicing with an arena half full of milling about spectators and it was less about practice and more about showmanship. I don't think anyone wanted to fall at that practice. Jayson started out the practice with a delayed axel that I had not seen before and it was lovely. I hope it shows up in a program or exhibition someday. He gets lovely spring on his jumps so the delay was very effective.
Jayson's long program costume was a new one and I really liked it. It looked like the same pants and shirt but added on was a gold velvet vest with some black trim. It looked very good on him. The program has also been reworked, I think. There was defintely a split falling leaf added that I loved in practice (I'm always a fan of anything to do with loops) but he left it out, along with a bunch of stuff near the end when he was visibly breathing hard. He started well and got a terrific roar from the crowd when he landed the opening triple axel but fell on the second one and started to loose some steam, falling twice more and a hand down on a third jump.
Overall, I think a 5th place finish was good for him. He is battling asthma and a bad headcold and was coughing up a storm all week. CTV noted that his roomate, Fecteau, was really annnoyed with him because the coughing was keeping him awake. (I have this mental image of Jean-Sebastien standing over him with a pillow saying, "You cough again, I smother you.") But 5th means he is on the National team and should get two fall assignments, if he is lucky. Skate Canada bound was our guess. David Dore could hardly fail to notice he got almost as much loot as Elvis.