Continent's Cup Figure Skating Championships

The first Cup belongs to Europe."Une belle victoire et du beau patinage".
Early and clearly Europe established a lead in dance and pairs and despite a great performance overall by our team we could not quite overcome this lead.
Because the championship takes place so early in the season, it will probably always be a challenge, for either side, to field its strongest competitors and its best programs. However quality is not lacking and those who are eiger to discover and scrutinize certainly got their chance and should be pleased with the opportunity.
These are very exciting times for figure skating. Now that they have seen their competitor's programs, and because they have time, imagine how busy choreographers will be to improve this or that and polish their arsenal!
The competition is fierce, all top contenders appear to be very close to one another and at the end of this Marathon of competitions leading to the Champions Series Final and Worlds, the champions will have proven not just skills, but an incredible level of endurance.
Edmonton was a gracious host to this made for TV event. Having likely discovered in their morning paper, at breakfast time that, yes, there was a competition, not next week or next month but tonight, it is to the credit of Edmontonians that so many made it to the Coliseum for the final.
It is also to the credit of organizers to have made this happen despite an obviously very short notice, and it should be remembered that if the crowds of World's could not be expected, the positive and exciting spirit of high calibre competition was there and we all enjoyed it!
We are now looking forward to the next Cup and my bet is North America will, then, even the score!
Gerard Chataigneau
FSC/CPA
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better organization, names, and results, plus bigger photos (for those who don't already have the (+) tag) for people with high bandwidth and/or a lot of time on their hands 8)