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Young figure skaters warming up ahead of competition at the Northern Lights Place (Ben Tompkins/northeastNOW)
2023 Skate Saskatchewan Sectionals

Saskatchewan’s best young figure skaters in Melfort

Dec 9, 2022 | 6:00 PM

The qualifiers for the 2023 Saskatchewan Winter Games are being held in Melfort this weekend. And that means roughly a hundred young skaters from around the province are skating their best at Northern Lights Palace.

“It’s a really good opportunity for our skaters and Melfort to kind of see other skaters,” said Beth Berg with Skate Melfort. “It gives the younger skaters and the skaters that are wanting to move up in their skill level the chance to see, what they could be participating in themselves too in the coming years.”

Qualifying skaters from this tournament move on to the Saskatchewan Winter Games in February in Regina. And for some, there is the possibility of national competition.

“Pre-novice and novice have an opportunity to move on to the Skate Canada Challenge event that is being held in Regina on January 25, to the 28th,” said Danielle Shaw with Skate Saskatchewan. “The novice from there have an opportunity to qualify for the Skate Canada Cup, which is in Calgary at the end of February.”

Shaw said the ages of competitors range from 8 to 17.

“They just skating their best and hoping to qualify to move on,” she said.

Judges closely watching as young skaters look to qualify for 2023 Saskatchewan Winter Games (Ben Tompkins/northeastNOW)

Organizers hope the community will take in some of the skating over the weekend. Admission is free, and organizers have also worked with a variety of vendors so people have the chance to do some Christmas shopping while at the event.

“Maybe there’s people in the community that have thought about figure skating or thought about just skating in general to kind of get them motivated to come out and try it,” said Berg.

Last year the event was held in Moose Jaw. Shaw said they try to move it around every year. Events run until 8:30 both Friday and Saturday night, and all day Sunday until around 4 pm.

The event is also being live-streamed on the Skate Saskatchewan website.

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