Skating

Sale and Pelletier shine for Canada

 Shae-Lynn Bourne and Victor Kraatz will assess their ice dancing status following the Salt Lake City Olympics and the world championships in Nagano, Japan, before deciding their future.

 Thus, the 2002 Winter Games fallout will be traumatic for Canadian figure skating. There will be significant change, and whether the country has the talent coming up to fill the holes is open to considerable debate.

 Stojko will celebrate his 30th birthday in Nagano, where he'll say his goodbyes. The Richmond Hill, Ont., skater has done it all -- world titles in 1994, 1995 and 1997, and Olympic silver in 1994 and 1998.

 He is pouring all he has into this season because he truly believes he has a shot at a medal in Salt Lake City. He wants to prove that his 10th-place showing at the 2001 world championships in Vancouver was an aberration.

 Stojko will skate professionally next winter, and look into motor racing as a possible second competitive endeavour.

 Stojko's departure opens the way for Emanuel Sandhu to reign nationally for as long as he wants. Sandhu, 21, also from Richmond Hill, won the Canadian title last winter when Stojko was unable to compete because of injury. However, Sandhu's inconsistency in international competition has kept him from rising no higher than ninth in the world. That's where he finished in Vancouver in March, yet, he and his coach have been known to talk about winning world and Olympic gold. Until he achieves more, that can only be viewed as empty talk.

 Robinson, 25, of Windsor, Ont., should win a fourth straight national title in Hamilton. Her best worlds showing eighth in 2000. She finished 15th last March. She'll be content to wind things up in Salt Lake City and Nagano, has plans to wed in September, and will move into coaching.

 There are high hopes for Nicole Watt, 16, of Melfort, Sask., but she has a long way to go before making a mark on the world stage.

 Sale, 24, of Red Deer, Alta., and Pelletier, 27, of Sayabec, Que., provided the figure skating highlight of the year for Canadian fans when they won pairs gold at the 2001 worlds in Vancouver. Canada hadn't ruled in the discipline since 1993 when Isabelle Brasseur and Lloyd Eisler won in Prague.

 They take an eight-meet winning streak to Hamilton.

 "The only one that counts is No. 10," Pelletier says, alluding to the Winter Games meet.

 Bourne, 25, of Chatham, Ont., and Kraatz, 30, of Vancouver look to get back on the ice dance podium that frequented with third-place finishes four times in the 1990s. They were fourth in Vancouver. They are good enough to win medals in Salt Lake City and Nagano, and perhaps even good enough to win gold given the uncertainty at the top. World champions Barbara Fusar-Poli and Maurizio Margaglio of Italy showed at the Grand Prix final in Kitchener, Ont., Dec. 15 that they are beatable.

 Marie-France Dubreuil and Patrice Lauzon of Montreal will ascend to No. 1 status in Canada when Bourne and Kraatz retire. Dubreuil and Lauzon, 11th in Vancouver, have staked a first-rate reputation as a top-10 couple in the world and will be in position to win world medals within two years.

 So, Canada is set in pairs and ice dance.

 A talented group of younger skaters is on its way up, and Skate Canada director general has devoted much time and energy to developing the organization's junior development program. It is bound to pay off.

 The Olympic men's singles battle for gold will be between Russians Evgeny Plushenko and Alexei Yagudin, who edged the reigning world champion in the Grand Prix final.

 Irina Slutskaya of Russia will be the favourite for women's gold, although the same was said last year at this time, before American star Michelle Kwan earned a fourth world title. Kwan, however, appears to have taken a step back, and Slutskaya is too good to allow her golden opportunity to slip away two years in a row.