When Olivia Wankling found out she would be skating with 2015 Canada Winter Games bronze medalist Justin Hampole in Saturday's silver interpretive couples competition at the Cariboo North Central Regional figure skating championships, the pressure was on.
It was up to her family to make sure their backyard rink in the Hart Highlands was like glass.
The 12-year-old Wankling, who skates for Northern B.C. Centre for Skating, needed the extra icetime away from the busy indoor ice at the Elksentre to work out her routine with her 14-year-old clubmate Hampole. As it turned out, all that outdoor practice paid off.
Wankling and Hampole won the couples event at the Kin Centre with a 38.85-point performance, ahead of the second-place team of Maya Lecuyer/Brianne Monsen of Terrace (25.26) and third-place Jessie Grant/Jourdan Gohn of Dawson Creek (20.67).
Now in her ninth year of skating, Wankling was sharp all weekend on her blades, posting personal-best scores while winning three other events in her final competition before she goes to Penticton for the B.C. Winter Games competition, Feb. 25-28,
Wankling won the under-14 pre-juvenile women solo (21.11) and silver interpretive women's competitions (35.17), both with personal-best performances. She also captured the elements 3 event.
"I skated really well and got gold in everything," said Wankling.
"That was the first time I did couples interpretive with Justin and we weren't expecting to do that well, because we made it all up ourselves, but we actually got first.
"It was pretty exciting to skate with him, he's a pretty funny guy. If other skaters were on the ice we didn't want to take away from their time by being in their way so my family built a backyard rink and we've been working on that ever since (his national competition) in December. He came over every second weekend."
Wankling said she managed to cover up a mistake in the elements event when she under-rotated a jump and the judges didn't deduct marks for that on her report card because she had a solid landing.
Wankling is one of three Northern B.C. Centre for Skating (NBCCS) athletes who will represent the region at B.C. Games.
Wankling and clubmate Myah Milner will compete in the juvenile women's category, while Olivia Trampuh of NBCCS and Shaya Jeffrey of Fort St. John have qualified in the pre-novice class. Games spots were determined at the section provincial championships in Coquitlam in November. Only the top two skaters in both classes from each region qualify
On Sunday, Jeffrey captured top spot on the podium in the pre-novice event at the Kin Centre ahead of second-place Trampuh and third-place Milner, who just recently moved up to pre-novice. Jeffrey scored 21.56 in the short program and 44.32 in the free skate, Trampuh's marks were 20.01 and 35.09, and Milner scored 17.18 and 33.70.
Trampuh, 14, is in her first season at the pre-novice level and has focused on improving her spins with club coach Katie Dakus. That resulted in a Level 2 score in her short program combination spin and a big improvement on her previous personal-best score, set at the section meet.
"It was great, I had a clean short (program) and felt like I really performed it and beat my personal best by like four points," said Trampuh.
"I was sick this weekend and before my long (program) it was bad, I just felt like I was going to throw up the whole time. I fell on a couple jumps, but I still got second. My hardest jump is probably my double Lutz, double toe (combination) and I'm trying to get my double-Axel, which is pretty close.
"My jumps are normally quite solid. I've really been working on my spins, which aren't my strength."
Trampuh also finished second to Hampole in the open elements and quad threat senior competitions. In quad threat, skaters have to work out a four-element program in a short timeframe with each performer skating to the same music. Hampole scored 13.10 while Trampuh posted a 9.86-point score.
Hampole was uncontested as the only male novice competitor at the regional event, scoring 36.36 for his short program and 62.13 for the long skate.
The three-day regional event hosted by the Prince George Figure Skating Club involved close to 250 skaters from 30 clubs.
Andrea Ludditt will coach the three NBCCS skaters in Penticton and has high hopes for them at the B.C. Winter Games, which happens every two years.
"It's a very exciting opportunity for them," said Ludditt.
"This was a really good stage for them to get out one more time and compete with the programs they're going to do (at the Games) and for us to get another report card. This was the first time Myah has ever competed pre-novice and she has a brand-new short program.
"It's a whole different mindset to compete two programs at an event and she handled it very well."
Ludditt increased the degree of difficulty considerably in Wankling's program and was relieved to see her perform well under pressure.
"She had a really nice skate and she's improved a lot," said Ludditt. "It's a risk when you up the ante like that but you have to do that and it was a good thing. She handled it well."
Ludditt said it was unfortunate there were no other novice skaters to push Hampole but he used the opportunity to begin a new season while debuting his new short program. Nursing a hamstring injury and a sore knee, he's coming off a disappointing 27th place finish at the Canadian championships in Edmonton in early December.
"It was an excellent chance to get some judges' feedback," she said.
