Winnipeg, MB (December 3, 2023) – The 2023 – 2024 Skate Canada Challenge – Junior/Senior wrapped up Sunday after three days of intense competition at the Seven Oaks Arena in Winnipeg, Man., with many new faces taking top honours in both the junior and senior categories in the men’s, women’s, pair, and ice dance disciplines.
In the senior men’s category, Conrad Orzel of Toronto showed that he’s ready to fight for gold at the 2024 Canadian Championships next month in Calgary, Alta., with his gold medal performance at this competition. Orzel, who was the silver medallist at the 2023 Canadian Tire National Championships, had the top score for both his short program and free skate to take the win with a total score of 222.85.
“No matter how good the second half of my season was, I always feel a little bit of an underdog,” said Orzel who had two top-10 finishes at international competitions this fall. “I feel like there are four or five really good Canadian skaters that can all come first at nationals, so I don’t have an advantage – I’m just going to have to work really hard until then.”
Aleksa Racic of Burnaby, B.C., captured the silver medal with a total score of 216.92 while last year’s gold medallist Matthew Newnham of Edmonton, Alta., finished with the bronze medal and a total score of 210.84.
The senior women’s competition saw two brand new seniors on the podium with Fée-Ann Landry of Gatineau, Que., winning gold with a total score of 182.05 after two first-place scores for her short program and free skate, and Hetty Shi of Mississauga, ON, who was the 2023 Junior National Champion capturing bronze with a total score of 171.31. Kaiya Ruiter of Calgary, Alta., took the silver medal with a total score of 176.42.
“I put out two solid programs. We were really happy about it – we worked really hard,” said Landry following her win. Looking forward to the national championships in January she commented: “We’re going to try to fit in some new jumps, probably a triple-triple combo, and just keep working on some of the things that I missed in the long program.”
The senior pair podium was also full of new faces with Émy Carignan and Bryan Pierro of Quebec winning gold with a total score of 144.06. Fiona Bombardier, who also competed in the senior women’s competition and finished 9th, made her pair debut with Gabriel Farand and took silver with a total score of 143.47, while Cadence Derenisky and Raine Eberl of Saskatchewan took bronze with a total score of 141.06.
In senior ice dance, Nadiia Bashynska and Peter Beaumont of Ajax, ON claimed their first senior title (185.96) after winning gold as juniors at the 2023 Canadian Tire National Championships, and the 2022 Skate Canada Challenge. Alicia Fabbri and Paul Ayer of Quebec captured silver (182.64), while Haley Sales and Nikolas Wamsteeker of B.C., took bronze (171.60).
“Both Nadiia and I are coming off of Finland, and are a little tired, so it was nice to come here and skate relatively clean programs. They might not have felt amazing to skate, but we’re happy with how we did relative to how physically tired we are,” said Beaumont who together with Bashynska finished eighth at the Grand Prix Espoo in Finland just a couple of weeks ago.
The junior competition was rife with up-and-coming Canadian stars and saw David Shteyngart of Ottawa, Ont., win the men’s competition with a total score of 186.81. Grayson Long of Toronto, Ont., repeated as the silver medallist (183.85), while hometown Winnipeg star, David Howes captured bronze (179.71).
In the junior women’s competition, both Lulu Lin of Mississauga, Ont., and Aleksa Volkova of Lac-Brôme, Que., moved up one on the podium to win gold (164.81) and silver (153.42) respectively after finishing second and third last year, while last year’s winner – Kara Yun of Burnaby, B.C., took the bronze (148.72).
The junior pair podium was completely full of new faces this year with Beau Callahan of St-Amable, Que., and Christophe Roch of St-Basile-Le-Grand, Que., winning gold with a total score of 119.07, Noémie Rolland of Ste-Marthe-sur-le-lac, Que., and Étienne Lacasse of Quebec City, Que., taking silver (114.47), and Annika Behnke of Peace River, Alta., and Kole Sauve of Grande Prairie, Alta., taking bronze (108.83).
Chloe Nguyen of Vancouver and Brendan Giang of Burnaby, B.C., who won a silver medal at a Junior Grand Prix event in Austria in September, won gold in junior ice dance with a total score of 159.03. Last year’s bronze medallists Layla Veillon and Alexander Brandys of London, Ont., moved up to silver this year with a total score of 154.59, while Alisa Korneva and Kieran Macdonald of Kitchener-Waterloo, Ont., took bronze (145.27).
Next up for most of these skaters will be the 2023 Canadian National Skating Championships taking place at the WinSport Arena in Calgary, Alta., from January 8-14, 2024.
For full results please click here: https://skatecanada.ca/2023-2024-skate-canada-challenge-junior-senior/#entries-starting-orders-and-results
