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Tuesday, January 13, 2015
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Ladysmith skater headed to nationals Lindsay Chung THE CHRONICLE
Sarah Kedves of Ladysmith was a flower retriever for some of the top figure skaters in the country when the Canadian Figure Skating Championships were held in Victoria in January 2011. She’ll be back at the nationals this January in a much different role, as she and her partner Lucas Pallard of Nanaimo will be representing B.C. and competing against 11 other teams for the Canadian novice pairs title. They’ll have their own flower retrievers when they compete at the 2015 Canadian Tire National Skating Championships Jan. 18-25 in Kingston, Ont. Kedves, 14, and Pallard, 18, fly to Kingston, this Friday (Jan. 16) and will have a couple of days to get used to the time difference and get used to a different ice surface before skating their short program Tuesday, Jan. 20 Pallard have and their long program Wednes- been skating day, Jan. 21. The event will be together, and live streamed online at www.dai- this season, lymotion.com/skatecanada. they’ve been Kedves and Pallard qualified for training fullthe nationals after representing time with the B.C./Yukon at the Skate Canada Racquet Club Challenge in Montreal in early of Victoria. December and finishing 12th. Kedves is feeling confident as This is the first time either skater the national championships get has qualified for the highest level closer. of competition in Canada. “I feel like we were ready two Kedves has been skating since weeks ago; we’re kind of just she was three and is a product now running programs for carof the Fuller Lake Skating Club, dio,” she said. “I’m confident we while Pallard has been skating can do lots of clean programs. since he was eight. They became We’re just going to go and run a a team while they were both program.” skating in Nanaimo, and Kedves’ Kedves says she gets nervous in former coach suggested they try the warm up, but when it’s time skating pairs together. to actually compete, she’s not reThis is the third year Kedves and ally that nervous.
Figure skaters Sarah Kedves of Ladysmith and Lucas Pallard of Nanaimo will be representing B.C. at the 2015 Canadian Tire National Skating Championships Jan. 18-25 in Kingston. They’ll be competing against 11 other teams from across the country for the national novice pairs title. TOP PHOTO SUBMITTED, LEFT PHOTO BY LINDSAY CHUNG
Kedves is probably most looking forward to the team room, where all the skaters from BC/Yukon gather, and there is food and games, and they broadcast the competition. Pallard says he doesn’t feel nervous as they head into the competition, and he is looking forward to travelling to Ontario. “I’ve never been, so that will be interesting, even if it is in the middle of winter,” he said. “The arena is the same one that hosts the Skate Canada International, so we’ll be skating on the same
ice surface as people like Joannie Rochette, Patrick Chan, and Jessica Dube and Bryce Davison.” This season, Pallard and Kedves have been working hard to increase the value of their lifts, throws and spins, such as having Kedves doing a cartwheel out of a lift instead of coming straight down, or making their spins last longer. “You can do an element and it’s worth something, and you do variations that increase the value,” explained Pallard. “We’ve been working on those a lot this
year because the elements are the same. It will be interesting to see more in-depth what can be improved on for next year.” In the past month since competing at Skate Canada Challenge, they’ve added more difficulty to their lifts and changed their spin to try to up the ante on their elements. Pallard thinks one of their strengths is their twist, as it is quite consistent. Pallard feels that in the three years they’ve been skating together, he and Kedves have grown in many ways. “We get along better, our connecting steps between elements have improved, and we communicate more without having to talk — it’s a connection kind of thing. That’s something you can’t really learn; it either comes, or sometimes it never does,” he said. In Victoria, Pallard and Kedves skate two to three hours a day, six days a week. The club coach is Deena Beacom, although she works more singles skaters, and their head coach is Matt Willis, who also does their choreography. Pallard and Kedves spend a lot of time on the ice with assistant coach Luke Laurie. Kedves feels they’ve improved in their elements while skating in Victoria. “We’ve improved a lot,” she said. “We get along really well. Our throws are really good, and our lifts are pretty good.” When it comes to competitions, Kedves says she likes the feeling of giving her all on the ice. “I like getting off the ice and being like ‘that was the best I could have done,’” she said. “That’s a good feeling.”
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