Whitehorse’s Mikayla Kramer achieved her goal for the season by qualifying for the 2017 Skate Canada Challenge. A top 25 finish at the national event was icing on the cake.
The Arctic Edge figure skater placed 23rd out of 60 skaters in novice women last week in Pierrefonds, Que., on the Island of Montreal.
“I’m pretty happy with my skates. I was pretty disappointed with my short program because it wasn’t as good as my past competitions,” said Kramer. “But I came back for the long program and had a pretty good long. I landed my first triple salchow-double toe in competition in my long program — I landed it before in my short but have never landed it in the long.
“It was also the first time in competition where I went up after the long program, not down. Usually … I go down two or three spots, but this time I was in 25th after the short and I went up to the 23rd spot.”
Kramer, who was fourth out of skaters representing the B.C./Yukon region, scored 33.48 in the short for 25th on Wednesday. The 14-year-old then posted a 61.97 in the free (long program) for 24th on Thursday.
She finished with a combined score of 95.45, about 10 points off the personal best she set at the B.C./Yukon Section Championships three weeks ago. Kramer qualified for Challenge with a fourth place finish at the section championships.
“I was just really happy that I made it to Challenge because at the beginning of the season it was my goal, but I wasn’t really sure I was going to make it,” said Kramer, who was the only Yukoner to compete this year.
By placing 23rd last week, Kramer was just five spots from qualifying for the Canadian Tire National Skating Championships this January in Ottawa.
Kramer, who represented Yukon at the 2015 Canada Winter Games and the 2014 Arctic Winter Games, also competed at last year’s Challenge and placed 21st out of 60 skaters in pre-novice.
After just one season in novice, she could potentially move up to the junior level next season.
“It all depends on how my training goes the next couple of months,” said Kramer. “If I can get a couple more triples — a triple lutz and a triple loop — then they’ll probably move me up to juniors, but I really don’t know. I’d like to move up juniors, but if I stay at novice that’s OK.”
Contact Tom Patrick at tomp@yukon-news.com