Canadian duo’s program spins out of control

To read the complete article go to:
http://www.thestar.com/sports/figureskating/article/1100314--canadian-duo-s-program-spins-out-of-control

By Rosie DiManno
Columnist

QUEBEC CITY—Rarely does the lowly death spiral turn into a killer element in pairs figure skating.

Almost never does it result in a big fat zero on the scoring page.

But that’s what happened to the Canadian entry of Meagan Duhamel and Eric Radford here Saturday night at the Grand Prix final.

“Never a zero before, no,” acknowledged Duhamel.

The why of it is rather too inside baseball to explain for a general audience but, basically, Duhamel’s head was above her pivoting knee on the movement for the one full rotation hold required to earn any kind of mark.

“Very fluky for us,” said Radford. “It was just a little miscalculation at the beginning. Unless you do a full rotation in that first position, nice and smooth, the whole thing is a zero. And there was just a little bobble in the beginning so we probably lost it right there.”

Still, it wasn’t really going to make much of a difference in the final outcome. Duhamel and Radford, together for two seasons and at their first GP final, were fifth after the short program and that’s where they finished when the whole event was over.