When the moment came to step out onto the biggest stage of his figure skating career, Justin Hampole knew there was no place to hide.
So with his nerves in check, he simply went out and skated the performance of his life.
In his first attempt at seizing the spotlight at the Canadian Tire National Championships in Ottawa, the 15-year-old Hampole finished 14th out of 18 competitors in the novice men's event, which wrapped up Tuesday.
With his Northern B.C. Centre for Skating coaches Rory Allen and Andrea Ludditt at rinkside and his family from Prince George in the crowd at TD Place in Ottawa, Hampole scored 61.12 points in his free skate and 38.10 in his short program for a 99.22 point total.
"It was awesome, it was probably one of the best experiences of skating I've had so far," said Hampole, the 2015 Canada Winter Games bronze medalist.
"I think I just really showed I'm a contender and I can actually perform on the national stage and I won't crack under pressure. I have strong technical elements and I'm a good skater and I showed that to the judges.
"In the free skate about 2 1/2 minutes in I went down on a double-Axel, which is one of my best elements. That kind of sucked, but overall I was pretty happy. My spins were super-fast."
Hampole has worked like a demon in practice building up the stamina needed to carry himself through a free program which lasts nearly four minutes.
"I started off good with a nice double-Axel, double-toe and made some costly mistakes that I regret now," he said. "But I definitely fought through the program and I surprised my coaches at the end there when I did a triple instead of a double. I did a triple-Lutz, double-loop and they were happy with it because it brought me up a few points.
"I think that really showed my determination and maybe even a bit of frustration with my program because right before that I wasn't doing a great skate, but I pulled it together pretty well. I felt really well-prepared.
"When I got onto the ice it seems so surreal," he said. "The lighting was so bright with at least 30 lights shining above you, you almost felt vulnerable on the ice. But once you get out there, you own that ice and it was so exhilarating, it was just amazing."
Hampole went to Ottawa having only had a couple weeks to break in a new pair of skates.
"My other skates broke down and I had get new ones in a rush and I had some problems with my feet," he said. "I'd make it through 10 minutes of a session and I had to get off because my feet hurt so bad I had to get off of them and I had to skate through that at nationals. The width of the skate wasn't right for my feet and I had to get them punched out and they felt a lot better today."
Hampole knows he can improve on the mistakes he made but he knows the experience of living up to the pressure of the country's highest-level competition will only make his stronger as he makes the jump later this year into the junior category.
Hampole will have one more chance to skate the novice routine he performed in Ottawa when he travels to Williams Lake this weekend for the Cariboo North Central Regional championships.
