Junior Achievement

The medal picture in the junior ice dance event came into rather clear focus this afternoon.
With an impressive victory in the original dance, Vanessa Crone of Aurora and Unionville's Paul Poirier put a virtual hammerlock on the battle for the gold medal. With a 77.03 overall point total, Crone and Poirier stretched their lead to 3.4 points over Barrie's Joanna Lenko and Mitchell Islam. That's a mountain in ice dance.
Lenko and Islam, meanwhile, are 3.74 points in front of third-place Sophie Knippel of Ottawa and Matthew Doleman of Dundas, who in turn are 4.11 better than the duo in fourth, Quebec's Karen Routhier and Eric Saucke-Lacelle.
In other words, you can pretty much guess the composition of the podium when the medals get handed out after Friday morning's free dance.
The first medals of the 2007 Canadian championships will be presented Thursday morning, after the junior men's free skate. The leaders in the chase for the medals after today's short program: Jean-Simon Legare of Beauport, Que. (54.25 points); Vancouver's Jeremy Ten (53.28), and Moscow-born Elladj Balde of Pierrefonds, Que. Nathan Last of the Nepean Skating Club stands 13th.

ON THE HOME FRONT:
*** Maybe this is finally Dana Zhalko-Tytarenko's turn. And what a place for it to happen for her. The petite 15-year-old from the Minto Skating Club has put together a strong competitive season from start to finish, but spent much of it playing bridesmaid. She finished second behind Nepean's Brooke Paulin (by a mere 0.03 points) at the Eastern Ontario Sectionals in November at the Nepean Sportsplex, and just missed a medal at the Eastern Challenge in Moncton, N.B., in December, winding up fourth behind clubmate Annie Claire Bergeron-Oliver by just 0.89 points.
But Zhalko-Tytarenko warmed to the big stage at the Metro Centre today, skating a confident short program to put herself in third place behind B.C.'s Kathryn Kang and Cecylia Witkowski. Kang scored 41.16 points, Witkowski 40.60 and Zhalko-Tytarenko 38.14. The Minto skater holds a 1.3-point edge over fourth-place Karine Chevrier of Pincourt, Que.
The free skate final is Saturday morning, and Zhalko-Tytarenko will close the show. She has drawn the final start position in the last of four flights.
Zhalko-Tytarenko, who was born in Kiev, switched her training base to Laurel, Md. this season. She is now coached by former Soviet ice dance star Genrikh Sretenski.
Bergeron-Oliver, who's battled an assortment of injuries this season, stands ninth after a solid skate today. With a 35.05-point total, she is less than two points away from cracking the top five. Bergeron-Oliver placed seventh in her junior debut at Canadians at home in Ottawa last year.
The third Minto skater in the event, Alexandrine Chong, placed 14th in the short.
*** You no doubt have noticed the look of this blog has changed. I thought the old template was a little tough on the eyes, so I changed it to something that's cleaner and (I hope) easier to read. Your comments on the new look are welcome, as always.