Canada's Cynthia Phaneuf, next to her coach Annie Barabe, reacts as the marks are posted for her free program in the women's competition Saturday March 27, 2010 at the World Figure Skating Championships in Turin, Italy.Paul Chiasson
Cynthia Phaneuf may have been carrying Canada's figurative flag at the world figure skating championships but she also had absolutely nothing to lose.
So in a competition that saw even the most steady of skaters falter, the 22-year-old from Contrecoeur, Que., finished fifth in women's singles Saturday in the finest international performance of her career.
"I was waiting for a long time to turn this corner. I just feel good," said Phaneuf, Canada's top women's skater here in the absence of Joannie Rochette.
Mao Asada of Japan captured her second world title while Olympic champion Kim Yu-Na of South Korea overcame an abysmal short program to claim silver. Laura Lepisto of Finland won the bronze.
The women's event at the Palavela ice rink played out in surprising fashion after the 19-year-old Kim, who virtually owned the ice at last month's Vancouver Olympics and had lost just once in the past two seasons, blew up with a seventh-place short program that showed the emotional strain of a long season.
"Right now I'm just happy to have finished the season," said Kim, who trains in Toronto with Canadian coach Brian Orser. "These world championships were the hardest competition mentally.
"My practice this morning wasn't good and I was worried. I couldn't concentrate. I was even thinking if I should skate my long program or if I should pull out."
Asada, runner-up to her longtime rival Kim at last month's Vancouver Olympics, scored 129.50 points for her short program that included two triple Axels - one of them marked down as under-rotated - earning 197.58 overall. The gold was Japan's second at the event, after Daisuke Takahashi beat Canada's Patrick Chan to win the men's singles.
"I'm very happy for today because I've done perfectly in both the long and short program," the 19-year-old Asada said. "I'm satisfied with this competition and it is a relief after the Olympic Games."
Kim, who'd stumbled her way through her short program appearing at times like she forgot where she was, was far from flawless Saturday. She fell on her triple Salchow and bailed on a double Axel to score 130.49 - still good enough for first in the free skate but 20 points off what she scored in Vancouver - and 190.79 overall. Orser, who's coached the South Korean star since 2006, could do little but look on and frown.
"Right now I just finished the season which was a long one," Kim said. "Next I go to Korea to have some fun and to spend time with my family.
"Then I'll decide (my future)."
Phaneuf, who has long skated in Rochette's shadow, was clean in her performance to "Mission Cleopatra" to earn 177.54 points, just 1.08 points out of a bronze medal. After winning the Canadian championships in 2004, she was 12th at the Vancouver Olympics, and had never finished higher than 15th at the worlds (last year in Los Angeles).
"It feels so good, I haven't been doing a clean long program for a very long time in competition," Phaneuf said. "I was doing it so many times in my head before I came here, that I was going to do this program just like that, and it just happened the way I felt it before coming here."
Rochette, 24, won bronze at the Vancouver Games less than a week after her mom died, then withdrew from the world championships, saying she hadn't had enough time to focus on the event.
Rochette won silver at last year's world event in L.A.
The Canadian team finished with two medals in Turin - gold by ice dancers Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir and silver from Chan.