Twelve Canadian Skaters head to Europe for two international competitions

Ottawa, ON: Team Canada will be competing at two skating events this week in Europe. The senior skaters will be competing at the Finlandia Trophy, in Espoo, Finland from October 4-7. The junior skaters will be competing in the sixth ISU Junior Grand Prix of Figure Skating in Ljubljana, Slovenia, from October 3-6.

Finlandia Trophy

This year marks the 23rd edition of the Finlandia Trophy, it is also one of the competitions on the International Skating Union’s (ISU) Challenger Series.

In the men’s field, Nicolas Nadeau, the 2016 world junior silver medalist and the 2015 Canadian National Junior Champion will compete at this event for the first time.

Véronik Mallet will be making her Finlandia debut in the ladies’ field after taking two years off to recover from injuries. Her last competitive event was the 2016 Canadian Tire National Skating Championships, were she finished fourth.

In the pair discipline, Kirsten Moore-Towers and Michael Marinaro will be the only pair team representing Canada at this competition. They are coming off of a second place finish at the 2018 Autumn Classic International that took place at the end September in Oakville, Ont.

Carolane Soucisse and Shane Firus are the lone ice dancers competing for Canada. They competed earlier this year at the 2018 Autumn Classic, winning the bronze medal.

CANADIAN ENTRIES AT 2018 FINLANDIA TROPHY

Mike Slipchuk, Skate Canada High Performance Director, will Canada’s team leader at the event. Physiotherapist Pat Stanziano, of Oakville, Ont. will be the Canadian medical staff onsite. Karen Howard of Regina, Sask. and Andre-Marc Allain of Ottawa, Ont. will be the Canadian officials at the event.

For more information, please visit www.isu.org.

JGP Ljubjana

In the men’s competition, Conrad Orzel will be looking to reach the podium after finishing fourth at the JGP Austria earlier this season.

Aurora Cotop will be competing at her first junior grand prix of the season in Slovenia. Last season she placed seventh and ninth at her two junior grand prix events.

Among the two pairs heading to Europe are Alicia Fabbri and Paul Ayer, they finished fourth at JGP Bratislava earlier this season.

Ellie Fisher and Simon-Pierre Malette Paquette are coming off of a fourth place finish at the 2018 Canadian championships and the event in Ljubjana will be their first international event of the season.

CANADIAN ENTRIES AT 2018 ISU JGP #6 – LJUBJANA, SLOVENIA

Bev Viger of Abbotsford, BC. and Ilan Yampolsky of Ottawa, Ont., will be Team Canada’s team leaders at the event. Physiotherapist Karen Seymour, of Toronto, Ont., will be the Canadian medical staff onsite. Andrew Bosco, of Thorold, Ont., and Ron Conacher, of Toronto, Ont., will be the Canadian officials at the event.

For more information, please visit www.isu.org. All events on the ISU Junior Grand Prix circuit will be livestreamed on the ISU Junior Grand Prix YouTube channel.