World best junior pair shifting gears

Winnipeg figure skaters Ava Kemp and Yohnatan Elizarov are headed to December’s exclusive ISU Junior Grand Prix Final as the top-ranked junior pair in the world this season.

But before they take a third stab at gold in Japan, the young athletes will make their senior debut in Austria, intent on earning the magic number of points that should make their Olympic season exponentially more exciting.

If Kemp and Elizarov succeed in accumulating 75 technical points next week at Icechallenge in Graz, they would establish their eligibility to compete at the ISU Four Continents championship in Beijing in January, as well as the 2026 Olympic Winter Games in Milan-Cortina.

A score of 91 would make them eligible to compete at the senior world championships in Prague in March.

Since capturing a second gold medal on the ISU Junior Grand Prix circuit in early September and qualifying as the top seed for the Final, Kemp, 17, and Elizarov, 21, have transformed their Clair de lune free skate program to incorporate the third overhead lift required in senior competition.

“(Three lifts) will be hard on both of us and, in senior, to get the (highest difficulty) level is harder so we’ll have to tweak the lifts so we can get level 4s on all of them,” Elizarov explained following their win in Turkey.

“They have a really sound foundation technically and they’ve been able to put a lot more work on making the transition into senior, developing their own character and style.”

Kemp and Elizarov declined a media interview ahead of their departure for Austria, preferring to stay focused on the task at hand. Coaches Kevin Dawe and Lee Barkell, who train the pair in Toronto, provided an update.

“The senior lifts have been developing well,” Dawe wrote in an email. “We have been working hard to keep improving the quality of the lifts and training them to be able to keep the power and speed as we introduced the third lift. We are all excited to head to Austria and compete, and then get ready for the Final.”

While there can be two points of contact between partners at the apex of the lifts in a junior program, in senior competition the man must hold his partner aloft on only one hand to earn level 4 points.

Speaking by phone during a training break, Barkell noted, “If they keep progressing and do what they’re capable of, I’ll go as far as saying they’re ready to challenge for that (senior national championship) podium.

“The biggest thing this year is they have a really sound foundation technically and they’ve been able to put a lot more work on making the transition into senior, developing their own character and style and, certainly, Sandra Bezic and David Wilson have been a huge part of that.”

Thanks to those world-renowned choreographers, Kemp and Elizarov now present much refined performance qualities. Among the choreographic highlights in their Clair de lune program is a ballet-like movement that sees Elizarov gliding forward in an arabesque position while Kemp balances on his back.

The move is reminiscent of one originally performed some 30 years ago by Russia’s two-time Olympic pair champions (1988 & 1994) Ekaterina Gordeeva and the late Sergei Grinkov.

Kemp explained earlier this season, “Sandra knows Ekaterina, so she asked her if we could use it. It’s been cool to use it.”

While the couple considers the balancing act easy to execute now, that wasn’t the case at first.

“It was hard. There was a couple of times where we tripped out of it or going into it. It’s definitely not easy to learn. It took a bit,” Elizarov admitted after successfully executing the move in competition.

Andre Bourgeois, Skate Canada’s NextGen director, is enthusiastic about Kemp and Elizarov’s growth, which is reflected in scores that are now approaching those of Canada’s best senior pairs.

“It’s really exciting for them. Ava and Yoni worked hard; the way they approached a rough season last year dealing with injury, having some success, then a disappointing junior world championship,” Bourgeois said, referring to the pair’s 10th place at the global event.

“I’m really impressed that they were able to not dwell on the past and look forward to where they wanted to go.”

Kemp and Elizarov are considered gold medal favourites among the nine couples competing in Austria. The field includes athletes from six countries, but none of the world’s top senior pairs will be there.

Those athletes, including Canada’s frontrunners for the Olympic team, are otherwise occupied with their own Grand Prix events. In fact, Deanna Stellato-Dudek and Maxime Deschamps, Canada’s 2024 world champions, and national silver medallists Lia Pereira and Trennt Michaud, compete this weekend at Skate Canada International in Saskatoon.

Kemp and Elizarov’s first chance to see how they measure up against the veterans will come at the Canadian championships in January when the Olympic team will be named.