Ten dressed for success
Bronze follows impulse
By Lyndon Little, Canwest News ServiceJanuary 28, 2009
http://www.canada.com/sports/dressed+success/1201975/story.html
When Jeremy Ten was packing for his trip to last week's figure skating nationals in Saskatoon he decided at the last moment to throw in his exhibition costume.
Considering that only the top three finishers in each event are invited to participate in the event-closing gala and, considering that the Vancouver skater placed 11th among senior men last season, it seemed an audacious bit of optimism.
Then again, Ten appears to have taken his new mantra of "anything is possible" to heart by finishing third behind only champion Patrick Chan of Toronto and silver medallist Vaughn Chipeur of Calgary.
In reaching the podium in just his second season at the senior level, the 19-year-old Ten assured himself a cornucopia of bonuses. Instead of his competitive season being over, he's earned a spot on Canada's team to this year's world championships March 23-29 in Los Angeles as well as a berth in the Feb. 3-8 Four Continents event at the Pacific Coliseum.
"It still hasn't sunk in yet," says Ten, who plans to take only a couple of days off before resuming training at Burnaby 8-Rinks. "I've been replaying the free skate in my head. So much has happened in the last couple of weeks."
Ten, a Magee high school grad who is now a second-year kinesiology student at SFU, received some valuable advice prior to the Saskatoon event.
"I talked to my choreographer, David Wilson, and he told me to believe that anything can happen," said the skater. "He also said, if you happen to miss an element just keep on fighting."
Those last words came in especially handy as Ten opened his four-and-a-half minute free skate by crashing to the ice on his triple Axel. Not too long ago that probably would have been enough to shatter his psyche so that the rest of the program would have been negatively affected. Instead, he picked himself up and went to land seven clean triples to set a personal best total score of 204.3 -- breaking the 200-point barrier for the first time in his career.
The only downside to Ten's bronze medal and trip to the worlds was that it came at the expense of his good friend and training partner Kevin Reynolds.
The 18-year-old Reynolds had been holding down the crucial third spot prior to the free skate. But despite landing two quads (a Salchow and toe loop) and two triple Axels, Reynolds finished with 201.97 points, bumping him down to fourth.
Although Reynolds made a couple of costly mistakes by downgrading his triple flip to a double and putting a hand down on his triple Lutz, the difference between the two came down to the program component score where Ten totalled 66.60 points to 58.92 for Reynolds.
Four-time world champion Kurt Browning, commenting on the men's event for CBC, offered the opinion that Reynolds needs only to add more speed to his skating and the Coquitlam jumping phenom will be difficult for anybody to beat.
"When Kevin was landing his quads I was going crazy in the Kiss and Cry," said Ten, who has yet to attempt a four-revolution jump in competition. "We're such good friends. We help push each other."
Earlier this season, Canada's new senior men's bronze medallist was anything but a perfect Ten. Making his debut on the senior Grand Prix circuit he recorded a 10th at Skate Canada and a seventh at the Cup of China in Beijing. Since then, Ten -- who in the past has experienced problems staying focused on the moment -- says he has benefited from both some hard work in training with coach Joanne McLeod as well as some off-ice help from local sports psychologist Anne Muscat.
"She's been an integral part of helping me not get so stressed out during competitions," credits Ten, a national champion at both the junior and pre-novice level. "My goal in Saskatoon was to do two solid programs and see where it takes me."
Like all the way to L.A.
SKATE NOTES: Jennifer Jiang, in her first season coaching Vancouver's Mira Leung, said Tuesday she and her skater have yet to firm up plans for next year. "We just got back home and we need some time," said the former international judge from China. "We have a plan, but not a detailed one yet." After three consecutive silver medal finishes in senior women's Leung fell to sixth this year. |