KITCHENER, Ont. - The clock is ticking toward the Vancouver Olympics and Canadian champion Patrick Chan is hearing it, loudly.

He admits he's a little concerned especially after the way things went this week at Skate Canada that it's looming so closely. His long program on Saturday didn't go much better than his short program on Friday.

On Saturday, he finished sixth in the men's event after a sub-par performance. He is the reigning world silver medalist.

Chan will miss the Grand Prix Final, and in his absence Nobunari Oda and Daisuke Takahashi of Japan, Evan Lysacek, Johnny Weir, Jeremy Abbott, all of the United States, and Brian Joubert of France will go.

Abbott earned his way to the Final by virtue of winning the gold medal at Skate Canada on Saturday, while Takahashi earned his ticket after finishing second. Neither really expected to get to the Tokyo final after finishing out of the medals in their first Grand Prix.

Takahashi actually won the long program on Saturday without a quad, while Abbott landed a beautiful one and finished second.

Overall, Abbott won with 232.99 points over Takahashi with 231.31. Alban Preaubert of France finished third with 212.28.

Chan's total score was 198.77.

Chan started his long program strongly with a triple Axel - double toe loop combination, and then a triple-triple combination which elicited cheers from the audience. But then he under-rotated his second triple Axel and things slid from there.

"Just getting back up was very hard,'' Chan said. His next trick was a three-jump combination that started with a triple Lutz.

But the steps are hard going into that element, and he needed a lot of speed to do it properly. After falling, he had to build up the speed again, and he couldn't do it.

"I had to build all the speed back up just from that little corner,'' he said.
He fell on the Lutz and the rest of the combination was not possible.

He doubled a triple loop and when he finally landed another triple Lutz, the crowd cheered wildly. He slipped off an edge on the triple Salchow and fell for a third time. He lost three points on the falls alone.

Still, the crowd gave Chan a noisy standing ovation. And when he did fall, they'd applaud again, to encourage him.

"The crowd was really overwhelming,'' Chan said. "But it was definitely more of a help pushing me along than a disadvantage. It was really helpful to have a great crowd.''

Chan explained that a combination of things were his downfall. "It's my first Grand Prix,'' he said. "If it was the beginning of the season, I don't think it would be as much of a concern for some people. But it isn't for me.''

Chan admitted that he may have overdone his warm-up before he skated, because he was exhausted at the end of his routine. "I lost three-quarters of my gas tank by the half-way mark,'' he said.

His warm-up? He has a series of "muscle activation" exercises, to activate the muscles that he uses for his elements. Things like leg raises to activate his gluts, the main muscle group necessary for jumps.

Perhaps, Chan said, he should have done three-quarters of the exercises in the morning before his practice, and had done only one-quarter of them before he actually skated.

"I found out a lot of good stuff,'' he said.

"I'll just have to talk with my entourage and see what I need to change,'' he said. "I'm just a little behind all these guys. These guys are flying jumps, no problem, and if I had my first Grand Prix in Russia, I think I'd be in the same situation. It's hard to watch them doing great.

"I just feel a little late. I feel like the kid who is kind of the slowest in the class.''

And so what if he misses the Grand Prix Final. He hasn't had good luck at them anyway, he said. He's been fifth the past two years, although last year, he went as one of the favourites.

"It stinks not to go,'' he said. "But then it's all the way to Japan. It's quite a ways for Olympic year. especially with my injury. I don't want to travel too much because it can irritate my leg a little bit.''

But the clock is ticking. Even though he's a little concerned, Chan doesn't think he'll be in a race to be ready in time.

Still every day, he hears someone telling him about the number of days left to the Olympic Games. (On Saturday, there were 83 days to go.)

"It's definitely hard to think about it,'' he said. "But I'll take it day by day and stay in the present. I think it's the biggest key to stay in the present. Life's too short to rush through it.''