Mabee, He Did

There are no maybes about Christopher Mabee anymore.
The young man from Tillsonburg, Ont., stared the big spotlight down tonight in the men's free skate and yes, it is true — he wobbled at a few moments. But this is the new Chris Mabee, as he reminded us again tonight.
So when the Canadian men's team was finally set for the world championships in Tokyo after one dandy night of skating, the list included Mabee's name for the first time.
Relief? You bet.
“I had two big errors,” said Mabee, 21, who popped a triple Axel and triple Salchow. “I just really questioned whether it was enough, and I’m so happy that it was because I’m really ready to go to worlds.”
Jeffrey Buttle, his good friend and training mate at the Mariposa School of Skating in Barrie, Ont., surely agreed.
“I’m really happy for him,” said Buttle. “He’s been capable of that for the past couple of years, so to see him go out there and put down two solid performances like that was really good.”
After Buttle, Shawn Sawyer of Edmundston, N.B., and Emanuel Sandhu of Richmond Hill, Ont., all brought the house down with terrific performances, it was all on Mabee, who skated in the final start position.
“Did I feel nervous? Yeah, I did,” Mabee admitted. “Especially after sitting in a room by myself, all the doubts started creeping in. I tried to keep them away and think about what I had to do to give a good performance.”
The magic number to make the team was about 125 points. But Mabee posted 133.63 for his wildly entertaining program, snagged himself another standing ovation, and climbed past Sandhu into the silver medal position. Mabee totalled 209.31, Sandhu 207.49.
The result stung Sandhu, whose medal collection at Canadians, up until now, included three gold and six silver medals as a senior.
“It hurts a little bit, because I was hungry for my title back, I was hungry for a gold medal,” said Sandhu. “I put in the work and I felt I could do it. I was practising like a champion all week and I competed like a champion today. I didn’t compete like a champion yesterday (in the short program) and that’s what took me out of the title position.”