Injury fails to rattle young Gloucester figure skating champ

Twelve-year-old Tang will appear at a nationwide event for the second year in a row as well, when she and five other figure skaters from the Bob MacQuarrie-based club compete in Skate Canada’s Challenge Dec. 2-6 in Mississauga, Ont.

Tang sat third after the Sectionals short program at the Nov. 13-14 competition in Napanee, Ont., but produced a flawless long program. “It was just one of those moments,” Gloucester Skating Club (GSC) head coach Darlene Joseph says. “She did it all – performed, spun, jumped. Everything – the whole package was great. The performance just stood out.”

Tang’s score of 78.06 established a new personal-best mark by 10 points and also earned her the top overall performance honour. “I was really surprised,” smiles Tang, who didn’t understand why she had to stick around for another award presentation after her fellow medallists left. “I kind of got confused and I almost fell off the podium.”

The first-place result was especially unexpected for Tang since she hadn’t been able to compete or jump all summer due to a knee injury that occurred after a provincial training camp. “We skated for the whole day for three days,” Tang notes. “And when I got back, I guess I should have taken a break, but I didn’t.”

Tang is still taking it easy in training to rest the nagging injury, so she doesn’t carry terribly high expectations for Challenge. “But I did this for all my competitions this season, so I’m kind of used to it now,” she adds.

Two other GSC skaters placed just behind Tang in the same category – Elisabeth Dyer in second and Kelsey MacLean in fourth, which is the final qualifying position for Challenge. “Going into the long, I was a lot more nervous,” says MacLean, who felt the pressure to try to maintain her second-place spot following a tremendous short program. “There are little mistakes that I’ll need to fix and hopefully it will be on time for Challenge.”

Elizabeth Comeau had the opposite experience in the novice event, vaulting up from seventh after the short program to third overall by winning the second skate. “I felt like I had nothing to lose going into long,” Comeau notes. “I think I skated to the best of my abilities, so I was proud of the result.”

Junior Sectionals silver-medallist Benjamin Guthrie wasn’t pleased with his last competition, but feels more confident since he’s now adapted to living on his own and studying commerce at the University of Ottawa.

Senior Patrick Goodman felt he struggled to a third-place Sectionals finish – the continuation of a tough summer where he couldn’t seem to feel relaxed while performing his program.

Juvenile Josh Allen won the youngest division at Sectionals and will move on to the March Ontario Winter Games in Muskoka along with other podium finishers.

The top-18 novice age and older athletes at Challenge qualify for nationals Jan. 11-17 in London, Ont.