With the competition season coming to a close, skaters from the Nelson Figure Skating Club have enjoyed a successful run, bringing home the hardware to prove it.
The 2013-14 season saw a number of club skaters competing for the first time, a goal coaches Yoshie Measures and Sarah Gower had set to improve on from last season.
In February, 15 skaters competed at the Kootenay Regional Championships in Beaver Valley, entering 40 separate events, the most for the club since 2008.
Eight skaters captured medals, with Charly DeFouw skating a beautiful program to win the title of West Kootenay Champion in the Star 5 under 13 freeskate event and Morgan Sabo nailing her axel jump to collect the silver medal with her Riverdance inspired program.
Sabo followed up with a first place finish in the Elements 1 event. The medal streak continued with high finishes across the Elements categories as Lila McKechnie and Helena Keating captured silver and bronze respectively in Elements 1, Isabella Kroker Kimber won Silver in Elements 2 and Charly DeFouw bronze in Elements 3.
The remainder of the medals came in the Solo Dance categories with Helena Keating winning silver and Lila McKechnie taking bronze in the Jr. Bronze Dance Solo 1 category.
In Junior Bronze Dance Solo 2 Mallory Pinske scored silver while Isabella Kroker-Kimber rated bronze. Courtney Shrieves won bronze in the Jr. Silver category, Charly DeFouw finished with bronze at the Sr. Bronze level and at the Sr. Silver level Christina Champlin and Breanna Tomilin captured silver and bronze respectively.
Despite the positive result Gower and Measures are looking for gold finishes at next year’s competition with the goal of winning Barclay Trophy awarded to the team with overall highest scores.
ice show to close out season
The final big event of the year is “Express To The Stars,” a musical tribute to the golden age of train travel. As always, all members of the club perform from the tiniest tots to the most seasoned skaters with music from Madagascar, Polar Express and much more. The show will be performed on May 10 from 2 to 3 p.m. Tickets available at the door.