Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION
Skating duo's rapid rise spectacular
Virden's Hole, partner Johnson taking ISU juniors by storm
Kaleigh Hole didn't begin skating pairs until last year. (GREG PENDER / CANWEST NEWS SERVICE ARCHIVES)
What Virden's Kaleigh Hole and her pairs partner Adam Johnson have already accomplished this season in the world of international figure skating competition is virtually unheard of.
Joining forces just last March, they have gone from the proverbial zero to 60, positioning themselves as the fifth-ranked junior pairs team in the world based on their result at the prestigious ISU junior Grand Prix Final in Tokyo last Friday.
That's no small feat considering the 16-year-old had never even skated pairs before while her 21-year-old partner from Chatham, Ont., was ninth-ranked nationally with his former partner last season.
"They're kind of a remarkable story," Skate Canada's high performance director Mike Slipchuk said in a telephone call from Japan after observing the pair's performance.
Walking off with the gold medal in their first major international event in Lake Placid, N.Y., and claiming bronze at their second in Belarus is indeed out of the ordinary. With those results, Hole and Johnson ranked third among 36 pairs from around the world, who competed in the autumn junior Grand Prix series of events, and qualified for one of eight spots for the Final. They were the only Canadian pair that did.
"For singles skating, I never travelled like this. It's really cool. The experiences are amazing," Hole told the Free Press from Tokyo.
Following last season's Canadian Championships, where Hole had placed 12th in junior women's singles competition, Johnson asked if she wanted to try pairs skating with him. A couple of whirls around an arena in Portage la Prairie and a match was made. The next thing Hole knew, she was on her way to Strathroy, Ont. -- about a half-hour drive from London -- where she now trains and goes to school.
"Overwhelmed" is how she described her reaction to winning the Lake Placid event ahead of pairs from Japan, Russia and the U.S.
The junior Final in Tokyo last weekend was held concurrently with the senior contest, allowing Hole and Johnson a priceless opportunity to study the performances of the frontrunners for Olympic gold in Vancouver.
"They are amazing," Hole said of the pairs from China, Germany and Russia. "Just the way they compose themselves on and off the ice, we can learn a lot from them. We watched the different technical things to see how they do them differently than us, things for us to improve certain elements."
With skating-mad Japanese fans crowded into Yoyogi National Stadium, the junior competitors benefitted from an infrequent opportunity to test their nerves performing for a large and loud crowd.
"It was really fun. I like big crowds. It gets your adrenaline pumping," Hole said.
Given that, she should enjoy competing for the first time in the senior ranks at the Canadian championships in mid-January in London, where the team for the 2010 Vancouver Olympics will be selected. That field will include 2008 world bronze medallists Jessica Dube and Bryce Davison and up-and-comers Paige Lawrence and Rudi Swiegers, who live in Brandon and train in Virden where they are coached by Hole's mother, Patricia.
While the rookie pair is not yet Olympic Games material, Hole and Johnson hope they can clinch one of three berths Canada has for pairs at the 2010 World junior championships in the Netherlands in March.
They also want to make the national team with a top-five finish and know that mastering an additional individual triple jump and a second triple throw jump over the next five weeks could help make that happen.
"It would be cool to keep climbing and hopefully get (to the senior world championships) one day," Hole said.
Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition December 8, 2009 C6
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