Canadian Nationals 1999 - Jayson Dénommée Reports

Canadian Nationals

26-31 January 1999

Ottawa, Ontario, CANADA

By Amy Mossman

Tuesday, 26 January
- I went to both of Jayson's practices today, though getting to the Jim Durrell center was a bit of an adventure for the late evening practice. The first practice was in the Civic Center and Jayson did his long program. Like almost every other skater today, he did not seem very high energy. He had some problems with the triple axel, though he did land at least one that I saw. I was also wondering if there was a problem with his right ankle or boot, since he and Josée seemed to keep looking at it. The second practice was much more upbeat than the first one, though the same axel problems remained. He practiced his short program and he has reworked the jumps. He is now doing a triple axel-double toe combination, a triple lutz from footwork, and a double axel. There was a new bit of straight line footwork that I really liked and possibly a few other changes in the serpentine footwork.
Wednesday, 27 January
- Jayson worked again on his short program at the first practice today. Mostly it was the triple axel, which he took a few big falls on, but did land eventually. Angela and I both noticed he was working very hard at everything in the program, trying to solve the problems. He also was trying a 3 toe- 3 toe but I don't know if it has a place in his long program. After practice, I wished him luck for the short program and found out he has been landing the triple axel - triple toe so will try that in the short. At the second practice, he worked on the long program. There were some problems with the music, which had also happened yesterday. The volume was very low at the begining and the sound got all buzzy by the end. I hope they manage to solve that. I noticed a few other people's music had that trouble as well. Once again, it was the triple axel that took up most of the time. All the other jumps seemed quite solid. After landing some, but none with the triple toe, he switched and started trying to land a triple axel directly from a spread eagle. Took about three tries (and some pretty impressive falls) but he got it. No idea if it is a plan for the long or just for fun. It certainly caught the attention of the practice audience who cheered when he finally got it.
Thursday, 28 January
- One morning practice to get ready for the short program tonight. Once again, pretty much everything seemed to be working fine except for the axel. Some falls and a few landed with the double toe. Overall, though, I thought Jayson was working hard and looked determined to skate well. I kept remembering last year when he was sick and coughing all the time and thought how focused he looked today. The mens short program was the second event of the evening. Things went well in the warmup until two hard falls on the axel. The time ran out before he could try another one. So, up to the program without an axel in warmup. But, he came out with alot of determination and fought for the whole program; landed the triple axel with hands down and a tight edge but pulled out the doube toe, clean triple lutz, kept up the speed on the serpentine footwork, and jumped so high on the double axel that he did put his hand down. I thought there might have been some of the free foot on the ice on the death drop but I didn't notice any other problems with the program. After it was all over, he ended up fourth and we muttered in the stands that he should have been third but either way, a really good way to head into the long program.
Friday, 29 January
Saturday, 30 January
- The final practice before the long program. It looked like a good practice, triple axels landed cleanly with double toe. Angela and I both thought Jayson looked calm and relaxed. Angela noticed that Elvis Stokjo came out and watched the whole practice group. Then it was a long wait until the long programs. The atmosphere in the building was really incredible, I have never been to a skating event that was that high powered. As the final group came out for warmup, the noise level rose and rose. Everyone in the group had someone cheering for them and we made plenty of noise for Jayson as he landed everything in sight and then did a few spins. I have watched Jayson skate at quite a few competitions now and I don't think I've seen a warmup where he looked so calm and confident. He has a great performance ability and the audience really responded. From the opening pose he began to sell the progrmam well. The first triple axel looked great in the air (it appeared to me about 6 feet in the air but maybe that is a bit of an exaggeration) but a fall on the landing, got up and did the double toe. 3 flip fine, good flying camel and good 3 lutz-2 toe. Footwork and spirals and everything seemed all set for the second triple axel but it just seemed to go wrong in the air and a very hard fall. 3 loop fine then flying sit and the second 3 lutz was no problem. Death drop then a sal like the one in Kamloops but more wild and he seemed to get a bit lost. The choreography was all there but the energy dropped down and the final triple toe become a double toe. Ended with the combo spin. A very tough performance but the audience stayed with him the whole time and he really gave it his best. With the disasterous performance of Jeff Langdon, there was hope to earn the bronze medal and Jayson tried hard for it and narrowly missed. The marks were very respectable and I think reflected the speed and the quality of the skating. It was a big improvement over last year and he moved up from 5th last year to 4th this year. He performed so well that some in the audience even booed his marks and, like last year, he got alot of things thrown on the ice. I checked the ordinals the next day and it was indeed a very close race with Hébert, with Jayson taking 4 3rd place ordinals.

Last Update 2/1/99
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