Manitoba figure skaters come home for Skate Canada Challenge

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This article was published 27/11/2024 (341 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Four Manitoba figure skaters, now training out of province, are back home this week to compete at Skate Canada Challenge, the qualifying event for the 2025 national championships in Laval, Que. in mid-January.

Reigning Canadian junior pairs champions Ava Kemp and Yohnatan Elizarov and singles skaters David Howes and Breken Brezden are among 150 athletes from across Canada who will take to competition ice at Seven Oaks Arena.

Kemp, 16, and Elizarov, who turns 21 next week, are once again in comeback mode after being sidelined from competition for several months while she recovered from an unspecified injury. It is the third time in as many seasons the Winnipeggers’ resilience has been tested.

In 2022, Kemp’s ankle sprain forced them to forfeit their ticket to the prestigious Junior Grand Prix Final. In spring 2023, Elizarov’s surgery for a collapsed lung delayed their off-season training, but the determined duo rebounded to pocket silver at the Final last December and then gold at the 2024 Canadians.

The pair’s latest misfortune meant withdrawal from both Grand Prix assignments in Europe this fall as they methodically worked their way back into fighting form.

“Their resiliency is their strength, that’s what makes them elite athletes,” said Kevin Dawe, who now coaches the pair in Toronto where all three relocated in the summer of 2023.

“That’s something you can’t train. Every time there’s a setback, they’re determined to come back stronger and better. That’s innate to them. It’s how they’ve grown up, how their parents raised them.”

The junior pairs kick off the Challenge competition Thursday afternoon. The field has been reduced to three couples after two top contenders qualified for next week’s Grand Prix Final in France and another is out with injury.

Kemp and Elizarov’s short program is set to music from the HBO series Succession. It was choreographed by Canada’s 2008 world men’s champion Jeff Buttle, now part of their coaching team along with his former coach Lee Barkell.

The pair’s routine has a big fan in André Bourgeois, Skate Canada’s NextGen director, whose job it is to guide the country’s up-and-comers.

“It’s a program that will stand out. It’s so different, so cool how it’s done,” Bourgeois said last month in Halifax.

Kemp and Elizarov’s goal this week is to re-familiarize themselves with the feeling of competing and garner feedback from the judging panel in the build-up to Canadians and, potentially, the world junior championships in Hungary in February. (Kemp and Elizarov have already competed twice at worlds, finishing sixth both times.)

“They really love competing. They like to perform and they’re excited to perform back in their home town,” Dawe said, as he headed to a training session last Friday.

“We’re not far off from where we were before we had the break. At Challenge, we’re not doing all of our hardest content even though we’re (training) it all. We’re being smart and making sure we don’t have any more interruptions to the season.”

Fellow Winnipegger Howes, 17, who shifted his training to Richmond, B.C. last year, is among the 21 junior men who open their campaign on Friday. He earned the bronze medal a year ago at Seven Oaks, and took fourth place on the national stage.

Earlier this season, Canada’s 2023 novice titleholder had been riding a roller-coaster with inconsistent competitive performances. Skating as a guest at the B.C. sectional championship a few weeks ago, however, Howes delivered two solid programs and tallied the highest score.

“Both programs this season are more demanding — both technically and choreographically — in skating skills and interpretation,” explained Howes’ coach Keegan Murphy.

“The ask is pretty amazing, so it takes many months for that to get ironed out in a competition. The goal is to put all those pieces together — by November, December, January — to peak at Canadians.”

Brezden, 18, a Skate Dauphin product now based in Hamilton, Ont., is the only Manitoban competing at the senior level. She and 25 other women get their start Saturday and close the show with their finale on Sunday.

Brezden, whose training and competition readiness were stymied by hip and ankle injuries last season, enjoyed a successful domestic competition run this summer. After clinching two gold medals, she earned her first Team Canada international competition assignment.

Despite a messy short program in Nice, France, in October, Brezden shone in the finale, earning fifth-best scores on the day and 10th place overall.

“She’s improving, gaining her confidence. Most important for her is to stay healthy and continue the evolution, the track she’s on,” Bourgeois noted.

“If she does that, there are opportunities down the road for further international competition. Her components (skating skills, presentation) are phenomenal. She’s a beautiful skater. She has presence on the ice. She has a lot going for her.”

Admission is free for Skate Canada Challenge. The event will be live-streamed at skatecanada.ca.