By Dan Plouffe
For Alaine Chartrand, the feeling is that her best is yet to come, and so far this season, it’s already been very good.
The Prescott resident who trains out of the Nepean Skating Club is riding high into the Jan. 19-25 Canadian Tire National Skating Championships just down the road in Kingston. Chartrand earned the first ISU Grand Prix medal of her senior international career in her last competition before the Canadians Nov. 14-15 in Moscow.
The 18-year-old was the leader after the short program, scoring a season-best 61.18 points, and also produced a season-best in the long program for a 172-point total, although she had a few jumps caused trouble, either under-rotated or with a two-foot landing.
“After being first in the short, I really wanted to stay on the podium,” Chartrand said in an ISU press release. “This is my first medal internationally. (The freeskate) wasn’t exactly what I wanted, but better than at Skate Canada (where she placed seventh earlier this season). An improvement is always good.”
Chatrand added that “there is definitely room for improvement” yet, and with two more months of practice – not to mention the withdrawal of defending-champion Kaetlyn Osmond – the Grade 12 Thousand Islands Secondary School student is set up nicely to improve on her fifth-place showing at last year’s nationals/Olympic trials in Ottawa and regain a spot on the podium after winning bronze in 2013.
Seven other local entries in the junior and novice categories also earned their way to the nationals by qualifying through the Dec. 3-7 Skate Canada Challenge in Montreal.
At Challenge, Gloucester’s Christian Reekie was 5th and Minto’s Cameron Hines 12th in novice men’s, Nepean’s Talia Rancourt & Alex Gunther were 12th in novice dance, Gloucester/Nepean’s Josh Allen placed ninth in junior men’s, Minto’s Zoe Gong and Alexis Dion were 13th and 17th in junior women’s, Kanata natives Melinda & Andrew Meng took 7th in junior dance, while Minto’s Audrey Croteau-Villeneuve & Jeff Hough withdrew after the short dance in the same category.
Nepean’s Daniel Rousskikh earned the best local result out of pre-novice skaters (who do not have a division at nationals) by placing 7th in pre-novice men’s.