Carolina Kostner poses with her gold medal. (AP-Yonhap News)
NICE, France (AP) ― Patrick Chan felt it was his destiny to win another world figure skating title on the day his former coach and mentor, Osborne Colson, used to celebrate his birthday. For Carolina Kostner, it was a first world gold after years of trying.
Chan became the first man in six years to win successive worlds despite a wobbly performance by the Canadian at the Palais des Expositions in Nice.
Daisuke Takahashi, the 2010 champion, was runner-up, and fellow Japanese Yuzuru Hanyu won the bronze in his first senior worlds.
Kostner, the graceful Italian, beat Russia’s Alena Leonova and Japan’s Akiko Suzuki, who got their first world medals.
They are poignant titles for Kostner and Chan, for different reasons.
Chan still vividly remembers Colson, who died six years ago at age 90, observing him from rink-side when he was a child.
“You’re not going to get many competitions just right like that ... the world championships on the same day as his birthday (was),” Chan said. “It was a very special day for me to accomplish that. If it wasn’t for him none of this would be happening.”
Colson taught Chan skills like edge work and stroking, nurturing the elegance which makes Chan among the most graceful modern-day skaters to watch.
“He guided me when I was a child and he kind of guided me today, because just thinking about him and the fact it was his birthday kind of helped me forget about being nervous,” Chan said after becoming the first skater to repeat since Stephane Lambiel of Switzerland. “I didn’t feel worried, I didn’t feel nervous anymore, I just felt a real calmness and nothing else mattered.”
Chan won the Canadian junior title in 2005, when he was only 14, establishing him as a rising star. Colson, the Canadian champion in 1936 and 1937, died the following summer.
koreaherald@heraldcorp.com
