Team Canada nod icing on the cake for local skaters

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This article was published 20/01/2025 (229 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A Team Canada assignment to the ISU world junior figure skating championships was the icing on the cake for Ava Kemp and Yohnatan Elizarov, Winnipeg’s newly crowned two-time Canadian junior pairs champions.

The duo got the official word Monday they’ll challenge for the podium in Debrecen, Hungary, in late February after arriving in Germany where they are slated to compete internationally for the first time this season.

Kemp, 16, and Elizarov, 21, have been on the move since clinching their second consecutive national title last Friday in Laval, Que. They are in Oberstdorf, Germany, for the Bavarian Open — as are twice-silver medallists Martina Ariano-Kent and Charly Laliberté-Laurent who will also make the trip to Hungary.

This week’s event represents an unusually late-in-the-season international start for all four athletes after Kemp’s back injury and Laliberté-Laurent’s shoulder surgery sidelined both couples for several months last summer and fall.

In Germany, the Canadians will compete against 13 pairs from nine European countries.

Kemp and Elizarov consider the event an opportunity to reacquaint themselves with the rigours and feeling of competing internationally, and a tune-up for the world juniors.

The duo, which now trains in Toronto, has competed twice previously at the world championships, finishing sixth both times. Their Quebec rivals ranked fifth last year.

“Their scores (at Canadians) reflected some of the best in the world,” coach Kevin Dawe said Sunday evening. “We know there hasn’t been any loss there, so they’ll be right in the thick of things (globally).”

Last week in Laval, Kemp and Elizarov earned just over 159 points, 10 shy of their personal best, which also happens to be the Canadian record, after some jump and execution miscues. At the Bavarian Open, they hope to up their tally by performing more solid jumps and executing difficult features in their elements more precisely.

Once back in Toronto, Elizarov said they’ll “reset” to ground themselves and follow the plan crafted by their coaches for the four weeks of training leading up to the world championships.

Kemp, whose hard work this season has already resulted in her showing a much improved double Axel and triple salchow jump, noted, “We know what type of training works for us, so we’ll just get back to work.”

Kemp and Elizarov were two of four Manitoba athletes who competed at the national championships. They proved to be a small but mighty contingent.

Winnipegger David Howes, 18, got the ball rolling by topping the field in the junior men’s short program on Wednesday and securing the bronze medal a day later.

After the pairs’ victory, it was Breken Brezden’s turn. The 19-year-old Dauphinite impressed with two stellar performances and a final fifth-place ranking Sunday in the hard-fought senior women’s event.

Brezden was eligible to be named to the team for the senior-level Four Continents championships, but Skate Canada stuck to the event protocol in assigning the three medallists.

Likewise, Howes did not get the nod for the world junior championships. Only the gold medal winner in his event made the cut.