Coquitlam’s Larkyn Austman has fallen just shy of being able to represent Canada at the ISU world skating championships in Japan in March.
Austman finished tenth at the ISU Four Continents event that wrapped up Sunday in Anaheim, Calif., but her technical score in the short program was just shy of the 29 points she required in an international event to meet the standard for competition at the worlds.
Austman scored 28.99 in her short program after she suffered a fall and she was placed 11th of 21 competitors. She was 12th in the free skate, and her technical score of 54.04 was more than the minimum required 49 points to qualify for worlds.
Austman spent much of her season working her way back into form at local and regional events following a summer of injuries and illness after she competed for Canada at the 2018 Winter Olympics and the 2018 world championships in Milan, Italy. Last month, she finished fourth at the Canadian Tire national skating championships in Saint John, N.B., but Skate Canada decided to leave two of the three positions for Canadian senior women at the world championships open pending results of the Four Continents competition.
Véronik Mallet, who finished third at nationals, was ninth in Anaheim, while the new Canadian champion, Alaine Chartrand, placed 16th. Chartrand will skate at worlds.
Skate Canada is expected to announce next week who will fill out its three positions for senior women at worlds, although it doesn’t have to bring all three competitors.
Competing nations can earn up to three spots in any discipline depending on how they place in the previous year’s world championship. The defending senior women’s world champion is Canada’s Kaitlyn Osmond, who is taking a hiatus from skating this season.
2/13: Story updated with new information from Skate Canada
