TOKYO — Marks didn't matter to three-time Canadian champions Valerie Marcoux and Craig Buntin Tuesday night at the world figure skating championships.
But good marks helped. The veterans shook off the troubles and cares of their past two competitions and finished fifth among 22 teams in the short program, earning 60.73 points for an error-free performance.
Two-time world champions Shen Xue and Zhao Hongbo of China asserted their superiority by winning the short program with ease, chalking up a personal best 71.87 points for their awe-inspiring throws and their magical quality. Zhao said afterward the mark was beyond their wildest expectations.
They also added they may retire from competition "for a while'' after this event.
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Aliona Savchenko and Robin Szolkowy of Germany thundered onto the stage to finish second with a dynamic effort, showing off unique moves and fast spins. But with 67.65 points, they are still well behind the Chinese.
Defending world champions Pang Qing and Tong Jian of China finished third after overcoming a mass of incidents and accidents this season. Tong, wearing a headband to cover a large, dark red scar on his right temple, thrust his fists into the air.
Pang suffered from a kidney infection earlier this year and says she still hasn't recovered and must carefully plan her day to perform her best.
Tong had 16 stitches to his temple after being involved in a car accident several months ago.
Pang and Tong have long skated in the shadow of Shen and Zhao but in the short program on Tuesday night, they floated, their faces shining. They made mistakes when they won the world title last year, but delivered exquisitely choreographed programs with difficult and endless transitions. They are expressive skaters and artists in their own right.
The surprise of the event was the dramatic freefall of world and Olympic silver medalists Zhang Dan and Zhang Hao of China, who came into the event ill and finished only tenth. Dan suffered from a fever and sore throat. "We couldn't prepare well for this competition,'' she said.
Perhaps it explained why they did an unimaginable mistake: Hao did one rotation too many on a lift (he's allowed 3 ½ rotations, he did 4 ½), and threw away about six points. Judges deducted two points for the lift they deemed illegal and the young pair received zero points for the move. They also received the lowest level of difficulty (one) death spiral.
"We are so sick with injuries and sickness, so my teammates will do better,'' Hao said.
Many expected a Chinese sweep, with the Germans being most capable of splitting them up.
Current Canadian champions Jessica Dube of Drummondville, Que., and Bryce Davison of Cambridge, Ont., - who deposed Marcoux and Buntin at the Canadian championships in January — are in 7th place. Anabelle Langlois of Grand-Mere, Que., and Cody Hay of Grande Prairie, Alta., are in 13th place.
Although Langlois is a seasoned Olympic veteran, Hay is competing at his first world championship.
And don't count the Russians out. Although former world champions and last year's silver medalists Maria Petrova and Alexei Tikhonov returned for another go this year (he is 35 years old), they dropped precipitously to eleventh place.
But a new Russian team seems prepared to fly the flag. Trained by the irrepressible Tamara Moskvina, Japanese-born Yuko Kawaguchi and Alexander Smirnov finished fourth with 62.07 points.
The couple has been together only since May. After the 1998 Olympics in Nagano, Moskvina said she got a handwritten fax from Kawaguchi, then 16 years old, saying she admired her team of Elena Berezhnaia and Anton Sikharulidze (who won Olympic gold in 2002) and she would like to take lessons from their coach.
Kawaguchi is now fluent in Russian and a fourth-year student at the University of St. Petersburg, where she studies international relationships.
Even more remarkably, Kawaguchi broke her ankle three months ago.
For Marcoux and Buntin, what really most important was that they showed they could skate in top gear. They landed solid triple toe loops, and a throw triple loop and skated as if their faces were lit by the moon.
"We didn't focus on any one thing,'' Marcoux said. "We just smiled and looked at each other. We had fun with it.''
"We didn't even need to look at the marks,'' Buntin said. "They could have been high. They could have been low. It didn't matter. We were happy with what we did.
"But high [marks] were better.''
All year, they struggled with the short program. Not this time. "To finish the season with that felt really good,'' Marcoux said.
This year they increased the technical difficulty of their long program by putting in a jump sequence that includes two triple toe loops with a hop in between.
"We're happy and comfortable in our skates to do the long program,'' Buntin said.
They admitted to the usual jet lag, but this is their third trip to Asia.
"We're kind of used to it,'' Buntin said.
Dube and Davison, making their comeback from a horrific accident at the Four Continents championships last month, triumphed by soldiering through a bumpy little short program to finish sixth. No one was more nervous than coach Annie Barabe, who was emotional when she saw Davison's blade slash Dube's cheek during side by side camel spins at the Four Continents.
"I have to say I was very nervous,'' Barabe said. "I didn't tell the kids before, but I told them after. I was not afraid of an accident, but afraid if they got close and something would happen.''
Dube admitted that things were a little shaky at the beginning. Dube stumbled while stroking backwards when her skate blade struck Davison's.
But they powered onwards and did triple Salchows. Barabe said she was pleased because "it shows me that they're really good at performing,'' she said.
"After that things fell together really nicely and we just enjoyed being out there,'' Davison said.
"We knew we could do that,'' he said. "What happened at Four Continents was just a freak accident. Yes, it's nice to be back in front of people and perform, but at the same time, our training has been going really well and we've been happy with the way we've been skating.''
He said their presentation, speed and power wasn't exactly as good as they hoped, but feels they're set up well for the long program on Wednesday.
Langlois and Hay had a few anxious moments when they switched hands on a lift. When Hay flipped his hand to the front and grabbed Langlois's hand again, his fingers got caught in the wrong spot.
"I don't think most people could tell,'' Langlois said. "The whole time we were wondering how we could put it down without breaking his hand. It was not a good feeling for me to know I could just break his finger off. He did a good job of setting [me] down with minimal damage and bearing with the pain.''
Hay said they made a few mistakes, and their side by side spin had been "iffy" for them all year. "It's been getting better, but it's our least consistent element,'' he said. "Overall, we upped our speed from nationals and the throws and the jumps all felt a lot better.''
