Manitobans up to the Challenge

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 28/11/2022 (1240 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

None of the four Manitoba athletes competing this week in the Skate Canada Challenge at Seven Oaks Arena had been born the last time Winnipeg hosted a national figure skating event.

When Breken Brezden, Ava Kemp, Yohnatan (Yoni) Elizarov and Emma King take to competition ice, they will be the first Manitobans to enjoy home-ice advantage since 2001 when the Canadian championships graced the old Winnipeg Arena.

Now, almost 22 years later, a new generation of 165 junior and senior figure skaters from across Canada are slated to compete Nov. 30 to Dec. 3 at Challenge (as it’s known), the qualifying competition for the national championships in early January in Oshawa, Ont.

Brezden, 16, intends to be one of the 18 junior women’s contenders who will advance to the nationals — a task easier said than done given 37 other hopefuls are entered in her event.

Still, if she can deliver high quality performances like the ones that earned her gold, silver and bronze medals at competitions in Ontario, Saskatchewan and Manitoba in recent months, a ticket to Oshawa should be within the provincial champ’s grasp.

“The more competitions you do, it’s easier to get in the groove and figure out the strategies that work and the things that don’t work,” Brezden said.

“If I skate how I’ve been training and I skate well, I think I have a pretty good shot at making it to nationals.”

Brezden, who learned to skate at age four wearing hockey skates, has competed four times previously at Challenge, but never made the cut for Canadians. Five months ago, she made a big move in hopes of changing that pattern.

For several years, Brezden trained primarily in Virden with veteran coach Patty Hole (and still does when she’s home), but that necessitated a five-hour return trip from her home in Dauphin several times each week. The grind was wearing on the athlete and her chauffeuring parents Jenni and Brian. Brezden knew that “wasted time” would be better spent on the ice and her high school studies.

“That was one of the main factors in deciding to train in (Hamilton) Ontario,” said Brezden who added strength, jump and dance classes to three hours of daily on-ice sessions. “The rink is four minutes away now which makes a drastic difference when it comes to getting homework done. It gives me the opportunity to do all those off-ice classes I couldn’t do before because I was on the road instead.”

After training in Hamilton with coaches Jen Jackson and former Canadian pairs champion Bryce Davison during the summer, Brezden decided to extend her stay through the first semester of her high school graduating year. She signed up for online schooling.

“Over six competitions, her scores have just been going up, up and up. She’s definitely in the hunt. Now, you can see she’s taking off. It’s exciting,” said coach Hole who will join Jackson at rinkside for this week’s competition.

Leading up to Challenge, Brezden has focused on run-throughs of her programs and maintaining her physical fitness and conditioning. She’s also worked on mental training so a mistake in her program doesn’t impact the rest of the performance.

Skate Winnipeg competitor King, 20, faces an equally formidable challenge in her debut in the senior women’s ranks with only 16 of 32 entries permitted to advance.

The junior and senior women’s events run Friday and Saturday.

Meanwhile, Winnipeg’s fast-rising junior pair skaters Kemp, 14, and Elizarov, 18, will test-drive their new Cirque du Soleil short program on Wednesday, five days before flying to Italy for the prestigious ISU Junior/Senior Grand Prix Final.

The rookie pair, ranked second and fifth in Grand Prix competition in Europe this fall, made the program change to accommodate the addition of two higher-scoring elements — a triple twist lift and throw triple Salchow. The technical upgrade will make them even more competitive with the world’s top juniors.

“We planned to do the short program at Challenge to get the feeling of doing a triple twist while we’re nervous just so we’re prepared for the final, so we don’t go into it blind,” Elizarov said.

Their calculated move to skate only the first of two competition segments to conserve energy ahead of the global event leaves just three pairs contending for the junior Challenge title.

Canada’s 10 other top-flight junior and senior competitors headed to the Final understandably chose to give Challenge a pass. All have a bye to the Canadian championships as does any skater who competed on the senior Grand Prix circuit.

Still, Grand Prix bronze medallists Marie-Jade Lauriault and Romain Le Gac (ice dance) and Brooke McIntosh and Benjamin Mimar and Kelly Ann Laurin and Loucas Ethier (pairs) will compete in Winnipeg with an eye to confirming their status as bona fide contenders for the national podium.

Wesley Chiu, the 17-year-old 2022 Canadian bronze medallist in 2022, will be on a similar mission as the top seed in the senior men’s field.

Their competitions all begin Wednesday.

Tickets for Skate Canada Challenge are available at Seven Oaks Arena. Single-day tickets are $25, while an all-event pass is $50 (plus fees).

The event will be live-streamed at skatecanada.ca and dailymotion.com/skatecanada