Canada has few medal hopes going into the World Figure Skating Championships March 16-22 at the Bell Centre, but fans might be getting a glimpse of the future.
Marjorie Lajoie and Zachary Lagha, are one of three Canadian entries in the ice dance event and they are looking forward to competing in their first world championships.
“We just want to enjoy the experience,” Lajoie, a 19-year-old from Boucherville, said after joining her Canadian teammates for a training session Monday at the Bell Centre. “We know we’ll be skating in front of family and friends and people will be cheering for us because we’re from Montreal, but the main thing is enjoy our time on the ice.”
“Everything has worked for us,” said Lagha, a 20-year-old from St-Hubert. “It’s our first worlds and it’s here in Montreal and it couldn’t be better. Our goal is to skate a little better each time we go on the ice and so far it’s worked.”
Lajoie and Lagha have been skating together for 10 years and made a breakthrough last year when they won the world junior title. They joined skating legends Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir as the only Canadians to win the title.
The youngsters have made a seamless jump to the senior competition. They were sixth at Skate Canada, seventh at the Rostelecom Cup and they placed second behind world medal contenders Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier at the Canadian championships. They had their best international showing shortly after the Canadian championships, placing fifth at the Four Continents event.
They are one of two ice dance teams coached by Marie-France Dubreuil and Patrice Lauzon, who played a huge part in the development of Virtue and Moir.
Veterans Laurence Fournier Beaudry of Montreal and Copenhagen native Nikolaj Sorensen are hoping to make a medal bid after a knee injury kept Sorensen out of action for eight weeks. They missed the Canadian championships, but were named to the team based on their previous record. A final decision on their participation will be made shortly, but Sorensen was confident he would be ready.
“We had a really good start to the season and our training has gone well so we’re looking forward to skating,” said Sorensen. “There’s still pain, but it’s not the same pain I had before my surgery.”
Sorensen had a torn meniscus repaired and also had a cartilage graft.
They started the season with bronze medal performances at their two international assignments — Skate America and the China Cup, but Sorensen missed a week of training between the two events.
Canadian figure skating is going through a rebuilding process following the retirement of Olympic gold medallist and world champion Patrick Chan, and the Virtue-Moir team.
Kirsten Moore-Towers and Michael Marinaro are given an outside chance at a medal in the pairs event. Canada’s other pairs entry is Evelyn Walsh and Trennt Michaud.
Alicia Pineault, a 20-year-old from Montreal, and Nam Nguyen will compete in singles. Canada has only one entry in each of the singles events.
Correction: An earlier version of this story misidentified skaters Evelyn Walsh and Trennt Michaud in a photo caption, and misspelled Trennt Michaud’s name.
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