MasterCard Skate Canada International kicked off on Thursday in Mississauga with the Compulsory Dance, and the Pairs and Men Short Programs. Skate Canada is the second of six qualifying events of the Grand Prix of Figure Skating series.

Ice Dance

World Champions Marina Anissina/Gwendal Peizerat of France started their Grand Prix season with the Rhumba Compulsory Dance at Skate Canada and received first places from all seven judges. "Today was the first day of the competition, and we are happy with our presentation in the Compulsory Dance", said Anissina. "Our first competition started well and we are glad that the new season has taken off." Second before the Original Dance are Israel's Galit Chait/Sergei Sakhnovski, who were also pleased with the way they skated the Rhumba. Skate Canada's silver medallists from last season, Elena Grushina/ Ruslan Goncharov (UKR), finished third. "We hope to do better in the Original Dance", commented Goncharov. "We want to show more expression and technique."

Pairs,

On Thursday, competition was strong in the Pairs event, which featured three of the top five couples from the 2000 World Championships in Nice including former World Champions Elena Berezhnaya/ Anton Sikharulidze (RUS). Canada's Jamie Sale/ David Pelletier, fourth at Worlds, had drawn to skate first in the Short Program and they set the standard with a clean performance to blues music from the soundtrack "Forget Paris". The Canadian pair landed a triple throw loop right at the beginning of the program and went on to do side by side triple toeloops. Although their marks went up to 5.8 for required elements as well as for presentation, the judges seemed to leave a little room for the following Skaters. "We felt great tonight", commented Sale. "I just knew that we would skate well when I stepped onto the ice. We wanted to skate better than at Skate America."

Next up were the reigning World Champions Maria Petrova/ Alexei Tikhonov of Russia, who presented a new short program to Russian folkloristic music. Petrova, who is suffering from an ankle injury, two footed the triple toe, but the rest of their program was well done.

Two time World Champions Berezhnaya/ Sikharulidze (RUS) were last to take the ice. The team from St. Petersburg, who is currently training in Hackensack (USA), are coming back from what has been a difficult year for them. Berezhnaya had tested positive last season for a prohibited substance (contained in a cold medication) at the European Championships in Vienna, and as a result the team lost their European title and withdrew from the World Championships in Nice. In Canada, however, the Russians made a good comeback, as they performed a clean and elegant program to "Meadowlands", a classical Russian Folk tune. Berezhnaya/ Sikharulidze took the lead in the Short Program, beating Sale/ Pelletier and Petrova/ Tikhonov. "It was difficult to skate the new program for the first time", said Sikharulidze. "Each element is important, and there are many good couples around", he added.

European Silver Medallists Dorota Zagorska/ Mariusz Siudek (POL) came in fifth. They seemed to be having an off night as Zagorska missed the triple toeloop and triple throw salchow.

Men

After loosing his Skate America title last week, three time World Champion Alexei Yagudin from Russia seemed determined to make a strong come back at Skate Canada. However, the 20-year-old landed a shaky quadruple toeloop/double toeloop combination and also had trouble holding on to the triple axel, yet he still placed ahead of 1996 World Champion Todd Eldredge (USA). Yagudin's performance also featured a triple lutz and an excellent flying sit spin. "I had problems on the landings because of the ice conditions", Yagudin explained. "The ice was a bit crunchy".

Eldredge had voted against the quadruple toeloop in his short program and instead he reeled off a triple flip-triple toeloop combination. He also completed the rest of the required elements cleanly. "I wanted to feel comfortable, it is a new program", he said on replacing the quadruple toeloop. The judges were divided between the Russian and the American. Six judges put Yagudin first, while three voted for Eldredge. Takeshi Honda of Japan finished third after the short. The 1999 Four Continents champion landed a quadruple toeloop as his first jump of the combination but then stepped out of the landing of the second jump (triple toeloop). Two time Four Continents silver medallist Chengjiang Li (China) faltered badly during his short program, as he missed all his jumps and he now sits in 10th place after the first day of the competition.

MasterCard Skate Canada International continues Friday with the Original Dance, Ladies Short Program and Pairs Free Program.

For further information please contact:

Grand Prix of Figure Skating & Final				Master Card Skate Canada Internationa
Aline Bussat, ISU Media Coordinator				Laurie Chatigny, Press Officer 
Tel:	+41 21 612 66 66					+1 905 502 93 60 (press room)
Fax:	+41 21 612 66 77					+1 416 230 78 38 (mobile) 
E-mail:	 bussat@isu.ch	

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