Whitehorse’s Arctic Edge skater Rachel Pettitt, 10, is working towards sticking the landing, this season and next.
With a successful season in pre-juvenile under her belt already, Pettitt used last weekend’s BC Coast Winter Skate in Vancouver to get a taste of things to come.
Moving up from pre-juvenile to juvenile ladies division, Pettitt came seventh in juvenile program and first in the interpretive, which qualifies her for the Pacific Skate event next month in Kamloops.
“We pushed her up a category early so that we could see where she is and what she needs to work at to get to the top of this one,” said Pettitt’s mother and Arctic Edge coach Trish Pettitt. “We didn’t have to push her up but we pushed her up to challenge her.
“She didn’t skate her best, but it was good to see that she needs to put more in the next program. That’s what we do every year.”
New to the juvenile category, Pettitt (and her coach) used the competition not only see how she would place but also to check out what manoeuvres her competition had in their routines. For instance, Pettitt added a second double-double to her routine, but then saw a competitor who finished ahead of her do three.
“We’re making a new program so we’re going to add more combinations,” said Trish. “One of the girls landed her double axel, and Rachel and I are working on the double axel, so we have to look at getting that in the program next year.
“She came back with that firsthand knowledge, so it was good.”
In November at the BC Sectionals, her biggest event of the season, Pettitt won silver in the pre-juvenile ladies event, producing a personal best score of 26.38.
Last year Pettitt won silver in the introductory interpretive event at the Winter Skate.
Contact Tom Patrick at
tomp@yukon-news.com