After two years of cancelled competitions, 23 young figure skaters from a Newmarket club are on their way to the provincial championships this week.
North Point Skating Academy, which skates out of the Ray Twinney Recreation Complex in Newmarket, is a small competitive club with about 70 skaters.
One of those skaters is 10-year-old Vienna Vidinovski, who has been skating since she was four.
“I love doing the performances and competitions, that’s my favourite part,” she said.
This will be her first time competing in Skate Ontario's provincial championships, but it’s not the first time she qualified.
“I was going to go a couple years ago but then COVID happened, so I couldn’t go,” Vienna said, adding that it was disappointing at the time.
She practises six days each week, which is typical for the skaters at North Point. Some of them practise from 6 a.m. to 8 a.m. before their school day, while others choose to skate for a few hours after school every day.
Founder of the club and coach Mark Batka said it’s that kind of dedication that has led 23 of his skaters to the next level this year.
“It kind of helps show all the hard work paid off and also for the kids, mainly for the kids, they’ve been very dedicated, especially with everything going on right now, to keep training, keep pushing through and overcome all the obstacles over the last couple of years. It’s a nice feeling,” he said.
It’s an extra nice feeling after COVID-19 restrictions cause the competition to be cancelled in 2020 and 2021.
“A lot of the kids who qualified before at the younger levels now still get a chance to do it at the higher levels, so it’s nice that they still get the opportunity to do it,” Batka said.
However, for some of the club’s younger skaters, this is the first time they will be going to provincials.
One of those is Timothy Goncharov, 9, who said, “I feel a little nervous, but not really.”
He said he has been skating for four or five years and while he doesn’t have a signature move, he does have a favourite.
“I like spins,” Timothy said. “They’re not really the best thing I can do but I just like them. They’re fun.”
Having fun is a key to success for the North Point skaters, Batka said.
“They work very hard. They’re very dedicated, very disciplined but we also have a lot of fun, that makes a difference too,” he said.
Often their practices will include games like capture the flag and other team building activities. Batka said it’s important for the kids to enjoy skating outside of competition and to build their confidence and team spirit.
The provincial championships will be held in Mississauga this year, bringing together the top-ranked skaters from across the province. The skaters were scored at a number of qualifier competitions in the past couple of months with the highest scores advancing.
The provincial championship runs from March 24 through to March 27.
These are all the skaters from North Point who will be hitting the ice this weekend:
- Markus Liu, 7
- Audriauna Batka, 7
- Sylvia Liu, 9
- Elle Persia, 9
- Timothy Goncharov, 9
- Emily Li, 9
- Catherine Chin, 10
- Teresa Niu, 10
- Vienna Vidinovski, 10
- Giselle Cheung, 11
- Aurora Chen, 11
- Katerina Krimsky, 12
- Alena Kolomiets, 12
- Ida Wang, 12
- Claire Zeng, 12
- Doris Wen, 13
- Matthea Ren, 14
- Kennedy Barillari, 15
- Priyanka Sharma, 15
- Lauren Batka, 15
- Jacob Yang, 16
- Kristen Chak, 16
- Megan Lamanna, 16
Update, March 22: The name of the skating club has been corrected to North Point Skating Academy. The club also mentioned an additional skater who has been added ot the list after publication.
