Castlegar and Rossland skaters worked together to bring back 10 medals from the 2022 West Kootenay Invitational figure skating competition.
The event was hosted by the Nelson Skating Club on Dec. 10 and 11. Skaters, families, coaches, and volunteers from all over the Kootenays travelled to Nelson to compete in multiple events over the two days.
This was the first competition of the season for the majority of the skaters and for some, their first competition ever. After competitions had been cancelled for the past two years due to COVID restrictions, this competition was highly anticipated by the skating community.
Due to coach shortages in the Kootenays, the Rossland Skating Club found themselves without a coach for thier competitive skaters and was faced with the decision to stop skating or travel to a neighbor club for training.
Five skaters from Rossland have been making the trek to Castlegar multiple times per week to receive lessons from coaches and train with the Castlegar Skating Club skaters.
The Castlegar Skating Club offers a huge thank you to coaches Ashley Ross, Candice Soukeroff, and Allison Soukeroff for all their hard work preparing these skaters.
The club’s next competition is planned for Jan. 20-22 in Fernie and the skaters are hard at work collecting bottles to help offset the costs of bringing along their amazing team of coaches. If you have bottles for donation please email castlegarskatingclub@gmail.com.
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Ribbon recipients:
Paisley Shaw, Emmie Nicol, Rebekah Profili, Nevay Hadikin and Freya Devine each earned a bronze medal in STAR 2 Freeskate.
Medal Recipients:
Anastasia Verigin - Bronze STAR 4 Freeskate 13&O
Anaya Molitwenik - Gold STAR 4 Freeskate U13, Silver STAR 5 Artistic and Gold for Group Showcase 3 (with partner Sara Hurd)
Sara Hurd - Gold STAR 4/5 Dance, Gold STAR 5 Artistic and Gold for Group Showcase 3 (with partner Anaya Molitwenik)
Ellie Kermode (Rossland) Gold STAR 6/7 Dance
Eva Manaigre (Rossland) Bronze STAR 5 Artistic
Payton Fowler (Rossland) Bronze STAR 8/9 Dance
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