Dancing Side By Side

It's a whole new game in the senior ice dance event at these Canadian figure skating championships.
You've probably heard the story. Five of the top seven teams from last year's nationals in Halifax aren't here this go round, either through retirements, sabbaticals (defending champs Marie-France Dubreuil and Patrice Lauzon) or partnerships that dissolved during the off-season.
So, with a whole whack of new teams showing up in Vancouver — and three world team berths up for grabs — a dogfight for those tickets to Gothenburg, Sweden, figured to ensue. Beyond the top spot, that is. Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir, who are ascending in a major way on the global scene, already hold a commanding lead (with 40.04 points) after tonight's compulsory dances.
But it's game on below them, now that the Yankee Polkas are all in the books. The big movers this season have been Allie Hann-McCurdy and Michael Coreno, two Ontario kids who headed west to Vancouver a few years back and hit the ice at Pacific Coliseum as the hometown team.
They're in second spot with 32.62 points, just a hair ahead of Houston-born Kaitlyn Weaver and Andrew Poje of Waterloo, Ont. (32.54), who surprised everyone by grabbing that precious third worlds ticket a year ago.
Two of those new teams are right in the mix, too. Ottawa's Siobhan Karam and Kevin O'Keefe of Limestone, Maine, who represent the Minto Skating Club, stand fourth (31.26). Then it's Montreal-based Mylene Girard and Liam Dougherty (30.70), followed by last year's national junior champs, Vanessa Crone of Aurora, Ont., and Paul Poirier of Unionville, Ont. (30.22).
That's a mere 2.40 points separating second through sixth, with two phases of the competition still to go. Game on, indeed.
For Hann-McCurdy and Coreno, the former national junior champions who were eighth in their senior debut a year ago in Halifax, the result tonight couldn't have been any better.
"We went to Skate Canada (in November in Quebec City) and we did very well there (fourth)," said Coreno, 23, of Delhi, Ont. "This is where we wanted to be so far."
Both agree a ticket to worlds this year would be a vital step toward their ultimate goal — the Vancouver 2010 Olympics, about as hometown a Winter Games as it could get for a Canadian couple.
"That was our goal this year," said Hann-McCurdy, 20, of Orleans, Ont., who continues to represent the Gloucester Figure Skating Club back in Ottawa. "We want to take it one year at a time but obviously, this is a good start."
Added Coreno: "I think it's one of the most important events (for us) right now, because this is a stepping stone to worlds, Four Continents ... to get on that team would be huge."
As tight as this competition is, though, it's a story that still has a few more twists and turns yet to come. The next chapter: Thursday night's original dance. Stay tuned.