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Silver lining sweet as ever
But don't try to tell Chantal Lefebvre and Michel Brunet their final performance of the Canadian Figure Skating Championships was a ho-hum thing. After all, standing ovations don't happen every day.
"It's special," said Brunet, 28, of Gatineau, after the crowd of 8,750 at the Civic Centre saluted their sultry free dance that closed out the senior ice dance competition. "We hadn't skated in Canada all year, and it was important for us to perform for this crowd. To get a standing ovation ... you feel goosebumps."
But it was the prize -- a return trip to the world championships in March in Helsinki -- that was most precious to Lefebvre and Brunet. They had to fend off a stern challenge from Marie-France Dubreuil and Patrice Lauzon all week, but yesterday's final battle ended when Dubreuil slipped briefly to the ice during an otherwise wonderfully skated free dance.
The mandatory deduction -- 0.2 to 0.3 under the new international rules -- pushed the Quebec team down to fourth place, behind Megan Wing and Aaron Lowe of Vancouver. It also cost them a spot on Canada's team for the first Four Continents Championship, Feb. 23-28 in Halifax.
"It happened in a second," said a disheartened Dubreuil. "We've done this program over and over since August and we never fell, even in practice. It had to happen today ..."
It ended the suspense for Lefebvre and Brunet, who knew about the fall before they began their performance.
Brunet now owns six silver medals in senior ice dance -- four with Lefebvre, 21, of LaSalle, Que., and two with former partner Jennifer Boyce (he won novice gold in 1987 with another partner) -- but none may have been harder-earned than this one.
"We might be second all our lives," said Brunet with a laugh. "But that second is getting stronger and stronger. Yes, it was a battle, but that's because the other people behind us are getting stronger, too."