KINGSTON, Ont. -- With four tight turns in the air and an unwavering landing, Canada's Patrick Chan launched himself into a whole new level of skating and put all the quad questions behind him.
The 19-year-old from Toronto, who was once so vocal in his defence of not having a quad, landed his first quad jump in competition Saturday, propelling him to victory at Skate Canada International after finishing a disappointing fourth in the short program.
"Finally," Chan said with a grin of sheer relief. "After I landed it it was pretty exhilarating. It's quite a jump, it's a whirlwind. And the audience was really loud (afterward), I couldn't hear my music for the first few seconds. It was a really cool feeling to finally put it out there in competition, especially in Canada."
Still, his final score of 239.52 points -- including the highest jump mark of the night for his quad -- was good enough for gold. Japan's Nobunari Oda was second with a score of 236.52 while American Adam Rippon placed third with 233.04. Kevin Reynolds of Coquitlam, B.C., second after the short program, fell to fourth place.
A quad controversy has raged in men's skating for the past few years and Chan has steadfastly argued for the no-quad side, drawing the ire of skaters such as Russian Evgeni Plushenko and Frenchman Brian Joubert, in his belief that skaters don't need them to be successful.
American Evan Lysacek won gold at the Vancouver Olympics without attempting a quad, and the results drew scathing words from Plushenko, Joubert and even former Canadian star Elvis Stojko.
Chan has succeeded at the world level thanks to his exquisite footwork and spins and interpretation of the music. The quad was the only element missing from his repertoire.
"Now that I have the quad in, I feel like I've added another part to my inventory," he said. "Doing a quad brings it to another level. It's a different feeling when you do a quad in your program, it brings a lot of excitement and a lot of tension."
Michael Slipchuk, Skate Canada's high performance director, said Chan knew he could only take his score so far without the quad, but that adding it to the program before it was perfected would be too costly.
"Last year, when a lot of the talk about the quad was happening, his quad was not at the point where he could put it in a competition," Slipchuk said. "Even when people said you needed it, if you don't have it, you can't put it in. Now that he has it, it does put you at a different level. Guys who go out and just do triple Axels, they're a bit behind you. You still have to fill in with the rest of the stuff to make it work well."
Chan is fortunate to have the rest of the stuff. It was evident Saturday in his final twisting and turning step sequence that covered the length of the ice and built in intensity to the final bars of his music from "Phantom of the Opera" and brought the crowd at the K-Rock Centre to its feet.
Afterward, as Chan blotted away the sweat pouring down his cheeks, he said he was simply relieved to finally put the quad questions to rest.
"I didn't want it to be a three-competition drought of not doing a quad, that would have been kind of embarrassing," he said. "So to get it over with and done is good to know and now I can go into my next competition knowing I've done it already in Skate Canada.
And if the future looked bright for the Canadian teen before, it turned a few shades brighter Saturday, Slipchuk said, based on the fact that Chan's performances here were far from perfect. There's still plenty of room for improvement.
"If we just focus on what he did here, he posted the top score of the year so far, and he had four falls (over the short and long program) and a couple of missed elements," said Slipchuk.
Earlier in the day, Canada's Kirsten Moore-Towers and Dylan Moscovitch skated away with the pairs silver medal less than a week after they were added to the lineup as an injury replacement.
Moore-Towers, from Waterloo, Ont., and Toronto's Moscovitch, who stepped in after Jessica Dube and Bryce Davison withdrew, won silver with a total score of 170.92 points, one of two Canadian teams on the pairs podium.
Paige Lawrence of Kennedy, Sask., and Rudi Swiegers of Virden, Man., won bronze with 161.15. Russians Lubov Iliushechkina and Nodari Maisuradze captured the gold with 171.40.
"It's definitely exciting," Moore-Towers said. "We found out just the beginning of this week and we were ready. Our next assignment isn't for a couple of weeks and I know that Dylan and I were both anxious just to get out. Just kind of icing on the cake to finish the way we did."
Moore-Towers and Moscovitch moved up from their fifth-place finish in the short program to claim silver, earning a standing ovation at the K-Rock Centre for their free skate performance to music from "Les Miserables."
"We're both pleased," Moore-Towers said. "Yesterday didn't go exactly how we planned but we came back today with a positive attitude and good spirits, and the long program went really well for us."
Dube and Davison, Canada's top pairs team and former world bronze medallists, pulled out after Davison injured his knee last week in practice and underwent surgery. There's no timetable for Davison's return.
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