Meagan Duhamel is thrown by her partner Eric Radford as they perform their free program to win the gold medal in the pairs competition at the Canadian Figure Skating Championships Saturday, January 24, 2015 in Kingston, Ontario.Paul Chiasson/The Canadian Press
Missing some of its biggest stars, the Canadian figure skating team will still head to the world championships with the podium in its sights.
Meagan Duhamel and Eric Radford in pairs and Kaitlyn Weaver and Andrew Poje in ice dance headline the world championship team named Sunday at the end of the Canadian championships.
Both the pairs and ice dance teams are enjoying breakthrough seasons, sweeping gold in every competition in which they've competed, including the Grand Prix Final in December.
"Given what we had coming out of the final, definitely with Meagan and Eric and Kaitlyn and Andrew, [the goal is] podium," said Mike Slipchuk, Skate Canada's high performance director. "And both have a great shot at gold. Those are two realistic entries.
"And we have a lot of unknowns."
Missing in action this weekend were three-time world champion Patrick Chan and Olympic and world ice dance champions Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir. All three, who were at the Rogers K-Rock Centre to watch the competition, are taking this season off to contemplate their futures.
"In a transition year, we've created depth," Slipchuk said.
When and if Chan and the ice dancers return, he said "it will only make us stronger.
"Spots that were available this year might not be there next year. That changed the landscape. And I think it makes everyone hungrier … We're starting to see the potential of our younger skaters. They were thrust in the spotlight this year and they totally handled it fine."
Nam Nguyen, a 16-year-old from Toronto, won the men's title in dominant fashion, giving a glimpse of a bright future in men's skating.
"Nam, he just lit it up," Slipchuk said.
Nguyen is improving at breakneck pace, finishing 23rd in a junior Grand Prix last season, months before winning the world junior championships. He captured a bronze and a fourth-place finish in his two senior Grand Prix events this season, and then had the performance of his career at the K-Rock Centre, opening Saturday night's free program with a huge quad Salchow on his way to a clean program.
"The thing with Nam is he is just so calm, cool and collected, and consistent," Slipchuk said. "He has a good sense of humour, he's fun to be around, but when he's on the ice, it's all business. With the way the field is now, and everyone is so technically efficient, you've got to be efficient."
Following in Chan's footsteps, Slipchuk said, has helped Nguyen's development.
"We've always had someone everyone could develop underneath. Jeff [Buttle] was there so Patrick had a year or two to build up. Then Patrick carried that group of men underneath him, so they could develop under him. And now this is the result of that.
"And I think it's that leadership, we have a great group of skaters, they're great role models, they want to see all Canadians succeed, and you saw that with Patrick being here [in Kingston] and Tessa and Scott being here, they all came back."
Jeremy Ten of Vancouver is the other men's entry for the world championships. Gabrielle Daleman of Newmarket, Ont., won the women's title in a field that was missing defending champion Kaetlyn Osmond due to injury. Alaine Chartrand of Prescott, Ont., finished second to also make the world team.
Canada's other two world entries in pairs are Lubov Ilyushechkina and Dylan Moscovitch of Toronto, and Julianne Séguin of Longueuil, Que., and Charlie Bilodeau of Notre-Dame-du-Portage, Que. Séguin and Bilodeau are still juniors, and are aiming for gold at the world junior championships.
The world championships are March 23-29.