A lot of tired women wandered into the Winnipeg Arena yesterday for the qualifying rounds of the Canadian figure skating championships.
Practices for the women began at 5 a.m. yesterday, long before most of Winnipeg was astir and the frigid darkness lifted.
That meant that Nadine Gosselin of Pont-Rouge, Que., had to get up at 3 a.m. to get to the first practice. For her, it wasn't ideal. The energetic little Gosselin landed a triple Lutz, but fell on another jump, stumbled out of a few more and downgraded others in the first qualifying round. Because the first round was the weaker of the two, Gosselin won in spite of her mistakes.
"It was really tough," Gosselin said. "It's really bizarre. It's only junior and senior [at the Canadian championships this year] but we have only one practice per day."
Not only did the women have to practice early yesterday, but tonight, Gosselin's only practice is at 11 p.m.
Gosselin said she tried to get some sleep after yesterday's practice, but couldn't. By yesterday afternoon, she realized she'd been awake for 14 hours.
"I'm not really happy with what I did," she said. "But it's done, so I can't really do anything about it. I can do better. It's only Tuesday."
Do? Gosselin won the hearts of six of the seven judges with her Moonlight Sonata program, in which she landed a triple Salchow and a triple Lutz. Ranked fourth in Canada in 1999 and fifth last year, Gosselin defeated Jillian Sheard of Toronto, who was 12th last year, and Annie Bellemare of St-Eustache, Que., a bronze medalist last season. The artistic Sheard actually won one first-place vote from a judge.
Gosselin said she's made one big change this year: Forget the marks and just skate your heart out. "Last year I was here for the result, but this year, I think about the performance and not the result. If I do a really great performance, the result will come."
Bellemare had an early practice, too, and didn't skate her best either, her only clean triple being a toe loop. She was less worried about the early hour than the cramped time frame of the event, which used qualifying rounds for the first time.
Bellemare rose at 4 a.m. yesterday and was on practice ice at 5:30. She remembers a time when she was a juvenile skater and she was on the ice at 4:30 a.m.
"It actually felt good," Bellemare said. "It's the beginning of the week. It's not like it's after the short [program]and you have to compete and you're tired. I was fine. I had a great practice this morning. I was really happy with everything this morning."
She managed to get a three-hour nap after the practice.
But the afternoon wasn't such a happy time for Bellemare. Dressed in flame-red colours and skating to unusual piano music Red Lilies, Crimson and Bright, Bellemare attempted a difficult spread-eagle entry into a triple Salchow, but stepped out of it. She doubled a Lutz and a loop. She stumbled out of a triple flip. She did land a marvellous sequence that included a double Axel and a triple toe loop, and her spins were improved. Still, she might have wished for darkness again.
Gosselin and Bellemare were part of a new experiment by the Skate Canada organization, which introduced qualifying rounds, to allow more skaters to get to the big event, rather than being knocked out sooner in divisional competitions. The men's qualifying rounds cut only three skaters on Monday, the women's rounds cut seven. Only the top 15 from each of two qualifying rounds advance to the short program later in the week.
Bellemare could have done without the early rise yesterday, but she believes the qualifying rounds are a good thing, to give skaters more exposure at the tension-filled Canadian championships. "But I think we should be here earlier, because we had only one practice, then the long program. It was too quick. We weren't used to the ice. We can't do a full run-through. I couldn't do a full run-through [yesterday] I could only do little parts."
Qualifying rounds are used at world championships, but they start after skaters have had a few practices in the day or two before the event.
"It didn't really feel like a competition [yesterday]" Bellemare said. "Everything went by so quick."
Bellemare said she wasn't quite ready when she skated yesterday. "It wasn't the performance I was expecting," she said. "It wasn't that bad, but it wasn't that good. Hopefully I'll build up for the rest of the week."
Bellemare would like to skate well here. She isn't happy about the way her season has gone so far: A ninth at Skate Canada and a 10th at Cup of Russia. (Last season, she won a bronze medal at the Four Continents Championships in Japan).
"I took two good weeks off after Cup of Russia, because I wasn't so sure what was going wrong, or if I wanted to skate anymore," she said.
Skating in the big leagues is tough, she said. Some people have trouble with jumps. Bellemare doesn't. She has one of the biggest triple Lutzes around. Her problem is handling stress.
"This is my goal for competitions to come," she said.
Bellemare said there is more pressure than ever on women in Canada, ever since Canadian champion Jennifer Robinson of Windsor, Ont., finished eighth at the world championships last March, and earned Canada an extra berth for women at the coming world championships in Vancouver.
"Hopefully, they'll send Jen because she did the thing last year and she's really good internationally," Bellemare said. "So there's really one spot [left] It's a lot of pressure."
Bellemare said since she's been a senior skater (1997), Canada has had only one berth for women at world championships. It's a new experience for her. "Hopefully the second lady we send will do great, and and we can send two to the Olympics. That would be awesome."