Press Room: News Releases
2010 | 2009 | 2008 | 2007 | 2006 | 2005 | 2004 | 2003 | 2002 | 2001
Canada’s Shawn Sawyer seventh at ISU Grand Prix
(November 10, 2007 - HARBIN, China) -Shawn Sawyer of Edmunston, N.B., struggled in Saturday’s free skate and finished in seventh place on Saturday in men’s competition to conclude the Cup of China, the third stop on the ISU Grand Prix figure skating circuit.
Johnny Weir of the U.S., won the gold medal with 231.78 points. American national champion Evan Lysacek was second at 229.36 and two-time world champion Stephane Lambiel for Switzerland was third at 192.22.
Sawyer was fifth after Friday’s short program, and after a strong warm-up, his free skate routine simply fell apart. He posted the 10th best score of the day and wound up seventh.
‘’I’m extremely disappointed, the free skate is my strongpoint,’’ said Sawyer, a two-time Canadian bronze medalist (2005 and 2006) and the national junior champion in 2002. ‘’I felt I was ready physically and mentally. I was comfortable on the ice but when I started I made errors all over the place. It’s a question of executing under stress because I can do this program really well in practice.’’
Canada’s other entry at the competition, Jessica Miller and Ian Moram of Montreal, won the bronze medal in pairs on Friday with a new program that included a rarely executed throw quad Salchow.
‘’We had landed the throw in practice and we were pretty excited about,’’ said Moram in his fifth season with Miller. ‘’We attempted it in the free skate and got credit for the rotation. The disappointment for us was not landing the side-by-side Axels which is usually an easy jump for us.’’
‘’Our free skate wasn’t performed the way we ideally wanted but it’s the direction we want go in,’’ added Miller. ‘’We attempted a lot of hard things and some paid off and others didn’t. Still we’ve put together programs that don’t have themes and allow us to be ourselves on the ice.’’
Former world champions Qing Pang and Jian Tong of China won the pairs gold with world junior champions Keauna McLaughlin and Rockne Brubaker of the U.S., second at 154.66 and Miller and Moram third at 137.30.
The fourth stop on the circuit is Friday to Sunday in Paris.
-30-
Skate Canada, the national governing body responsible for the development and administration of figure skating in Canada, is the largest figure skating association in the world. With skating programs for athletes of all ages, offered at 1326 clubs across the country, Skate Canada is an association dedicated to providing every Canadian the opportunity to experience the passion, spirit and triumph of skating.
