Local skating star Reese Rose captured the silver medal in the under-12 juvenile ladies event at the Ontario Starskate Figure Skating championships held this weekend at the Kingston Invista Centre.
And Rose wasn’t the only local athlete to dazzle on the ice. Alex Lee from the Fort Henry Figure Skating Club won a silver medal in Silver Triathlon and a bronze in the Star 10 competition.
Rose and Lee were just some of the many talented young athletes who performed to the best of their ability in the 56 different events held in Kingston over the weekend.
And to hear officials from Skate Ontario describe the weekend, Kingston deserves a medal for delivering an excellent event.
“We’re based out of Mississauga, so we don’t know this area and without the local organizers. We just couldn’t pull this off,” said Michelle Hunsley from Skate Ontario.
The Kingston skating community came through with a gold medal performance, both on and off the ice.
“I’m proud of everyone,” said Glenda Cartwright, the event coordinator.
“It was March break and that’s a difficult time to recruit volunteers, so we extended invitations of support from clubs throughout the region,” continued Cartwright.
“We had volunteers from Athens, Brockville, Gananoque, Stirling and Frankford, as well as the local clubs from Kingston, Fort Henry and the Loyalist Club from Amherstview. They all came together to make this a wonderful event.”
With the logistics of running such a huge competition in place, it allowed Skate Ontario to do what they do best.
“We wanted them to have a fun and learning experience. That’s what this event is all about,” Hunsley said. “We know that everyone can’t be on the podium, but we do hope that skaters strive for personal goals. They’re all winners. They’ve all qualified to be here and they’ve all worked very hard. They should be proud of their accomplishments no matter where they finish.”