Music: {allcanada} CHAN SITS THIRD AFTER SHORT PROGRAM AT SKATE CANADA

Friday, October 28, 2011

{allcanada} CHAN SITS THIRD AFTER SHORT PROGRAM AT SKATE CANADA

MISSISSAUGA, Ont. -- Patrick Chan was third after the Skate Canada International men's short program Friday night, and that didn't bother the world champion in the least.

The top three are bunched together after the short program -- Javier Fernandez of Spain has 84.71 points, Daisuke Takahashi of Japan is at 84.66 and Canada's champion Chan at 83.28 -- and gold is up for grabs going into the Saturday free skating show.

"It's a great position to be in," Chan said. "It's better than I did at Skate Canada last year. I didn't fall three times this time."

The 20-year-old Torontonian was his usual optimistic self.

"The points are close and this is the first Grand Prix for me this season," he said. "My goal is to make it to the Grand Prix Final. It can be ugly or it can be pretty. It doesn't matter. As long as I get there, I'll be satisfied."

Chan landed a quad toe loop jump but a sloppy landing with a hand on the ice led him to omit his combo's scheduled triple toe loop. He then reduced his triple Axel to a double. He then added a triple toe to his triple Lutz to score the required combo.

"Winning the worlds kind of gives you the room to make mistakes," he reasoned. "It gives you the leisure to not be hard on yourself. I think that's why I'm happy to be third. I really am grateful to have the God-given gifts to skate."

He's been training on an Olympic-sized ice surface in Colorado and returning to the NHL-sized Hershey Centre might have thrown his timing off.

"I had some mental hesitation with the patterns," he said.

Fernandez, 19, is coached in Toronto by former world and Canadian champ Brian Orser.

He opened with a quad toe loop -- he was the only skater with a perfectly clean quad -- then went into a triple Lutz-triple toe and added a tremendous triple Axel before doing his spins and footwork.

The triple Axel was Orser's trademark jump."

I am really happy that everything I practised worked," said Fernandez, who was 10th at the 2011 world championships. "I am really, really happy working with Brian. I think we are going to be a really good team."

The two got together four months ago.

"I think I'll stay," he said with a big grin.

Takahashi, 25, the 2010 world champ, slipped to fifth when Chan won the 2011 world title.

Adam Rippon of the United States was fourth with 72.89. An iffy landing on his triple Axel was his only miscue.

"I haven't competed since last February so I kind of just tried to ease back into the competition feeling again," he said. "I'm really happy with the changes I made during the summer. (Coach) Jason Dungjen has helped me a lot with my mindset. I felt kind of shaky but Jason helped me centre back to skating in the moment."

Andrei Rogozine, 18, of Richmond Hill, Ont., was sixth with 67.28 and Elladj Balde, 20. Of Pierrefonds, Que., was last among 10.