News

THIS, THAT AND THE OTHER

By Laurie Nealin
Reporting for Skate Canada

HALIFAX -- There are a 1000 stories being told in and around the Metro Centre this week at the BMO Financial Group Canadian Championships. These are just a few of them.

BURN UP THE FLOOR

In a wide-ranging interview with a gaggle of reporters on Tuesday, three-time Canadian champion (2001, 2003, 2004) Emanuel Sandhu talked excitedly about his burgeoning singing career. His first recording -- his cover of Prince's "Purple Rain" -- got airplay on radio stations in Vancouver and can be listened to by going to Sandhu's website www.emanuelsandhu.com.

"That was my first foray into studio recording. It's really, really great. It's very creative," he said.

Next up for the aspiring singer is a pop music piece called "Burn Up the Floor" which Sandhu co-wrote, co-produced and sang. He wasn't certain when it would be publicly released.

"I'm very proud of it. I've had amazing feedback from people who have heard it and it will make you want to dance.

"I love it because it's a creative process and I love performing as well," Sandhu said of his musical pursuits.

BTW, the 1995 Canadian Championships in Halifax were Sandhu's first national competition. He took the silver medal in novice men's.

SKATES GO AWOL

These Championships got off to a rocky and rather stressful start for 11 athletes, who arrived in Halifax minus their skates. Packed in their checked luggage as required by post-9/11 security regulations, for some reason the indispensable equipment seems to be going AWOL with greater frequency this season.

One of this week's unlucky travellers was Emanuel Sandhu. Instead of practising Monday, he was on the phone trying to locate his missing bag.

Although all skates are now present and accounted for, this issue cries out for a solution, especially after senior pairs competitor Anabelle Langlois never did see her $2700 pair of size 3-1/2 skates again after putting her luggage on the Lufthansa conveyer belt in Toronto en route to the ISU Grand Prix in Moscow last November.

That misfortune cost her and partner Cody Hay big time.

Not only did they miss out on the chance to win substantial prize money in Russia, they still had to pay for their coach to make the trip, Langlois missed a week of work (at Jack Astor's restaurant in Barrie), they missed out on ISU world ranking points, and missed three weeks of training while she waited for new skates.

As well, even if Langlois' skates had eventually materialized within a week or so, the ISU rules forbid offering a competitor the option of competing in a subsequent event, even if their withdrawal was the result of circumstances beyond their control. Langlois termed that scenario "frustrating."

"I'm the first one that this actually happened to that the skates just didn't show up. I like being the first at things, but not (like this)," Langlois joked.

One cannot help wondering what the ISU would do if a reigning world champion were to find themselves skateless at the World Championships in Tokyo in March.

Coaches at the Mariposa Club in Barrie, where Langlois trains, decided to do a test of the Fed Ex option, shipping a pair of skates by courier to Halifax this week. Given the fate of a pair of skates in the Tom Hanks' movie Castaway, that solution would appear to have its flaws.

"Maybe that's where my skates are right now," smiled Langlois. "Somewhere on Gilligan's Island."

Perhaps the most high-profile skater to have skates go missing en route to an event this season is world champion Stephane Lambiel. When he arrived in Victoria for Skate Canada, his skates did not come with him. Luckily, they did arrive in time for him to compete there. One supposes that is the scenario the ISU is counting on.

The consensus among skaters and coaches in Halifax seems to be the use of lock-boxes where skates could be placed for safe keeping in the cabin of the airplane.

Skate Canada's CEO William Thompson reports that the organization is going to approach decision-makers at Transport Canada to try to find a solution which would allow the skates to be secured in the airplane cabin.

"It's not up to the airlines, so they can't help us... I'm not sure it (a domestic solution) would have helped Anabelle, though, because that would be a second step. We could have got her skates to Frankfurt that way but they still could have been lost from Frankfurt to Moscow, so it's not going to be a complete answer," Thompson said.

WHEELER'S SOUVENIR FROM 1981 HALIFAX CANADIANS

The experience of competing at the 1981 Canadian Championships, the first time the event was held in Halifax, scarred Kevin Wheeler for life.

Wheeler, now a long-time coach at the Champions Training Centre in Cambridge, made his national championship debut in Halifax as a novice category pairs skater with then partner Christine Hough. The duo was also entered in senior Fours -- a competition which involves two pairs duos skating as a foursome. The unusual discipline was last contested at the 1997 Canadians. For the 1981 Fours event, Wheeler and Hough teamed up with his sister Carol Wheeler and Michael Kashelka, a name for which Wheeler was unsure of the exact spelling.

On practice, while the four skaters were executing flying camel spins in box formation, Carol and Kevin got too close together and her blade sliced open his hip. The blood poured out but Wheeler cupped his hand over the wound and skated off to the hospital. Eight or so stitches later, he was good to go.

The next day was a busy one that Wheeler, 14, refused to miss. He and Hough skated to a fourth-place finish in novice pairs. (Wheeler found it amusing that this event was completed before the opening ceremony was held.)

After the ceremony, the Fours event was held. Wheeler is certain he and his teammates did not win a medal, but cannot recall exactly where they ranked in what, he said, was one of the largest Fours fields ever at the national championships.

WHERE'S ELVIS?

Elvis Stojko, who announced his decision to leave figure skating behind and pursue other interests last summer, is now living in Mexico -- inland, apparently, rather than on a sun-drenched beach. Details as to what activities he was pursuing there were not certain, although one of his former coaches, Michelle Leigh, suggested Stojko was likely working on his singing career and working out with an eye to continuing his athletic pursuits in martial arts.

When Sandhu was asked if he ever thought of teaming up to make a recording with Stojko, a pairing that could be called E-Squared, Sandhu laughed and offered jokingly, "A new boy band?"

WHERE'S FEDOR?

Fedor Andreev, a former national team member and fan heartthrob, is living in Hong Kong, working for a Detroit-based modelling agency and racing cars. His former coach Richard Callaghan, who now coaches senior women's contender Lesley Hawker, reports that Andreev was considering making a comeback to competitive figure skating last spring. Unwilling to give up modelling or NASCAR, however, Callaghan suggested he rethink that plan.

"He said he was skating great but he loves modelling and NASCAR racing and didn't want to give them up," Callaghan said.

Last summer, the agency sent Andreev first to New York, then to Thailand for a month, and then on to Hong Kong, where he has been working the last two-and-a-half months. He is also racing cars there with a sponsor's support.

Andreev and long-time girlfriend Tanith Belbin, the Canadian-born ice dancer and reigning U.S. champion, parted ways several months ago.


Copyright 2006 Laurie Nealin - This article may not be reproduced in whole or in part without permission of the author.