The Great Leap Forward

It is a mighty jump, to be sure, and one that Allie Hann-McCurdy and Michael Coreno themselves might not have dared contemplate at the outset of what his quickly become the season of their young lives.
But here they are on a Saturday night in Vancouver, their adopted home, with tickets to the world figure skating championships firmly in hand, fully punched and good to go.
"It's absolutely amazing," Hann-McCurdy, 20, of Orleans, Ont., said Saturday night in the moments after she and Coreno had put a lock on the third-place finish they needed in the senior ice dance final at the Canadian figure skating championships.
"That was our goal this week. We had personal bests in the (original dance) and free dance. I don't think we could have done any more."
Understand, now, that Hann-McCurdy and Coreno were eighth in this event a year ago. And even though five of the top seven teams from that competition in Halifax weren't here (for a variety of reasons), they modestly targeted a top-five finish here, which meant a spot on the national team.
All that changed, however, at HomeSense Skate Canada in Quebec City. Hann-McCurdy and Coreno finished fourth that weekend at the Pepsi Colisee, two spots in front of Kaitlyn Weaver of Houston, Tex., and Andrew Poje of Waterloo, Ont. — the senior dance bronze medallists in Halifax.
Suddenly, the wheels — and the goals — began to turn a lot faster in their heads. Maybe a world team berth wasn't such a long shot after all.
"That was when we thought we had a shot at top three and not just top five," said Hann-McCurdy.
Coaches Victor Kraatz, the former world champion (with Shae-Lynn Bourne) and Maikki Uotila-Kraatz noticed a distinct rise in their proteges' confidence level.
"(Quebec City) was the turning point of the career so far," said Uotila.
Saturday night at Pacific Coliseum, the crowd of 5,273 saw a confident, faster duo put on a fabulous display.
"The biggest difference for them is speed, velocity, execution of elements," said Kraatz. "It's become obvious."
Said Coreno: "You can be really good at elements and from the start, we've been good at elements. But you have to look good and look confident, and I think that's what this year was about. Going out there and saying 'this is our place, this is where we want to be, and we're going to skate up to that.' ”
Though Hann-McCurdy and Coreno finished fifth in the free dance, their overall total of 173.86 points was just good enough to hold off 2007 national junior champions Vanessa Crone of Aurora, Ont., and Paul Poirier of Unionville, Ont. (172.95) for the third and final world team berth. Mylene Girard of Repentigny, Que., and Liam Dougherty of Whitehorse (172.28) weren't far off in a photo finish, either.
"We went for it and didn't hold anything back," said Hann-McCurdy. "We said let's do this and if it gets us to worlds, all the better."
Added Coreno, 23, of Delhi, Ont.: "It was tough. Everybody was separated by half a point. It's tough to compete like that."
Now they can see, perhaps more than ever, that their biggest goal — the Vancouver 2010 Olympics — is very real and very possible.
"We're going to be there," Hann-McCurdy said.
And we don't think she meant just as spectators.