Keegan Messing closes books on Canadian figure skating championships with a second title - results
The 30-year-old Messing is set to retire at the end of this season. His final performance at his national championships wasn't perfect - but it was enough to take the title.
Figure Skating
Keegan Messing's final performance at the Canadian National Skating Championships delivered him his second-straight title win on Saturday (14 January).
The 30-year-old veteran figure skater and two-time Olympian earned a combined total score of 257.78 to win the event, which was held in Oshawa, Ontario. Conrad Orzel was second (237.46) with Wesley Chiu climbing from 11th after the short program to third (226.15).
"Coming out here for my final nationals, it was amazing. I couldn't have asked for a better crowd, better volunteers, better hosts, everything came together and now two-time national champ," Messing said afterward. "Thank you so much everyone for being with me for this entire ride. It's meant more to me than anything. I've always tried to skate for you and thank you for enjoying the ride."
Olympian Roman Sadovsky was 13th after the short program, but used a fifth-place finish in the free skate to move to 8th overall with a score of 206.86.
Messing said prior to the 2022-23 season that this would be his last. After his final performance at the Canadian Championships, he stayed on the ice, fighting back tears and taking in the standing ovation from the crowd. He, then, performed a back flip and embraced his parents for several seconds.
Skating to 'Home' by Phillip Phillips, Messing shook off two early mistakes but successfully executed a quadruple toeloop and two triple Axels.
2023 Canadian national skating championships - results
Here are the standings after the men's competition. See a full list of the results here.
Men
1. Keegan Messing, 257.78
2. Conrad Orzel, 237.46
3. Wesley Chiu, 226.15
4. Stephen Gogolev, 220.13
5. Corey Circelli, 212.33
6. Matthew Newnham, 211.33