Yukon skaters hard at work during off-season

Summer may not bring up images of ice rinks in most minds, but several Arctic Edge Skating Club skaters have been hard at work in the Canada Games Centre, Greater Vancouver, Calgary, Saskatoon and even Mississauga.

Summer may not bring up images of ice rinks in most minds, but several Arctic Edge Skating Club skaters have been hard at work in the Canada Games Centre, Greater Vancouver, Calgary, Saskatoon and even Mississauga.

Summer is a key training time for skaters, and it is often when they make their greatest improvements.

Michelle Gorczycza trained in Mississauga and had a very successful summer. She finished seventh in the Senior Ladies event at the Skate Canada Central Ontario SummerSkate 2008 competition in Thornhill, Ontario.

Gorczycza has been working hard on her triple loop and fans look forward to watching her perform it when she returns to the Yukon in early September.

Other senior club skaters Kevin and Teneil Caron and Amelia Austin trained in Vancouver this summer.

The Carons worked with former world and Canadian champion Karen Magnusson at the North Shore Winter Club, while Austin worked with two-time polish Junior National champion Adam Zalegowski at the Vancouver Skating Club.

Another senior skater Kayla Hallonquist traveled to Saskatchewan to work at the Saskatoon Summer Skating School with coach Cindy Tymoruski.

Maya Austin, Rachel Pettitt and Bryn Hoffman trained in Yukon before heading to BC (Austin/Hoffman) and Alberta (Pettitt) for additional training. These three young skaters also received invitations and participated in the BC Skating Section’s, Rising Stars Camp held Aug. 18 and 19 in Burnaby.

Austin and Pettitt both had great results at the BC SummerSkate competition placing fourth in their respective events.

At the BC/YT Section SummerSkate 2008 Kayla Armstrong finished in eighth place in the preliminary ladies group five event, while Kelcy Armstrong placed 10th in the Preliminary Ladies 10& Under Group 3 category. 

Maya Austin finished fourth in the Preliminary Ladies 10& Under Group 4, while Nikita White finished 16th in the Pre-Juvenile Ladies Group.

Rachel Pettitt came in fourth Pre-Juvenile Ladies Group 2 event and Bryn Hoffman came in 12th in the Juvenile Ladies Group.

The Novice Ladies Short Program Group included Amelia Austin coming in eighth place and Teneil Caron placing in 21st.

Results in the Novice Ladies FreeSkate Group included Amelia Austin placing 16th and Teneil Caron coming in 18th.

The Junior Men’s Short Program included Kevin Caron coming in 10th place. Caron also finished in 10th in the Junior Men’s Free Skate program.

Story provided by Cheryl Van Blaricom, Publicity for the Arctic Edge Skating Club.