Nelson Skating Club athletes attended the second competition of the season, the West Kootenay Invitational competition in Rossland over the weekend of January 9-11.
The club had 15 skaters compete in a total of 34 events.
“It was great that we had skaters entered in events from the lowest level of STAR 1 right up to Gold Dance Solo, as it shows the evolution of our club. A few years ago we would have only had skaters entered in the lower events, but now we have skaters working on all the levels, which reflects that our senior skaters are staying with us until they finish high school,” said coach Sarah Gower.
“The culture of our club has changed a lot in the past few years,” said coach Yoshie Measures, “skaters know that if they work hard and stay with the sport, we can help them achieve gold level in all four disciplines – skills, dance, interpretive and free skate.”
Result highlights included silver medals for Isabella Kroker-Kimber in Sr. Bronze Dance Solo and for Courtney Shrieves in Jr. Silver Dance Solo.
In the interpretive categories, the stand-out performances were Breanna Tomilin with a silver medal in the Bronze Interpretive category, skating to Swan Lake, and Christina Champlin with a bronze medal in the Silver Interpretive category with her Luck be a Lady routine.
In the free skate portion of the competition, Isabella Kroker-Kimber won the silver medal in the STAR 4 13 and over group with her elegantly skated program to the Titanic soundtrack. Morgan Sabo won the bronze medal in the STAR 5 13 and up category with a dramatic program to music from Romeo and Juliet.
Nelson skaters also did well in the Elements events, with Charly DeFouw scoring a bronze medal in Elements 2, Group 2, and Morgan Sabo winning a silver medal in Elements 2, Group 3.
In the Intro Elements group, Aurora Panko-Dool won the bronze medal. The Elements event is a more relaxed event where skaters perform and are scored on jump and spin elements in isolation.
Finally the club would like to recognize the STAR 1 and STAR 2 skaters.
The STAR 1 skaters all scored silver and gold ratings in what was for most of them their first competitive experience.
Leola Belkin and Hannah McClure received gold ratings, while Ceili Kooznetsoff and Daria LeBleu received silver ratings. Turning in solid performances, Courtney Donaldson and Aurora Panko-Dool both received bronze ratings for STAR 2.
Next stop for the Nelson Skating Club is the Kootenay Regional Championships in Fernie at the end of January.