Christmas is coming about a month early for 13-year-old Alex Callaway.
After nine years of practicing her figure skating form, she finally has qualified to compete in the BC/Yukon Super Series Section Championships, set for Nov. 8-11 in Coquitlam.
To prepare herself for that big event, Callaway is in Kamloops this weekend skating at the Autumn Leaves competition, entered in two categories. She'll skate today in the Star 7 women's event and on Sunday will take her game up another notch in the juvenile women's under-14 class. It will be the first time skating in front of panel of judges for Callaway since a pre-juvenile Super Series event in May and she has an entirely new program to unveil.
"I'm super-excited I've got a new program, it's something I've wanted for a while now," said Callaway, who trains with the Northern BC Centre for Skating. "It's challenging trying to get the performance and all the elements you need all together and being able to do them well.
"This competition is a warm-up but it's also to test how I'm feeling and get going with my new program. I have two more combos and I've added two more doubles. We're trying to get the double-Lutz ready for sections. I'm just trying to get the feeling."
Callaway trained throughout the summer, four and sometimes five times per week, working out the bugs in her new program. Her mother Nicole is a distance runner who has competed in the Canadian Death Race ultra-marathon off-road race a few times and Alex has inherited her mom's love for trail running, which builds stamina for skating.
"I love running on trails, I live by Ginter's (recreation area) so it's perfect trails," she said.
Asked if there's one thing most people don't know about figure skaters, Callaway did not hesitate.
"How hard we train, it's intense," she said. "The off-ice portion in the summertime is pretty intense and training on the ice you're always focused and ready to learn more and do more and get things done."
NBCCS veteran Justin Hampole, 17, is heading into his third year in the junior men's category, coming off a season in which he finished 13th out of 18 at the Canadian Tire national championships. Hampole has been fighting off a lower back injury that bit into his training time but the pain has subsided and he made the trip to Kamloops. He skated both programs cleanly without a hitch on the practice ice Wednesday at Kin 2, which should set him up well for a strong weekend at Autumn Leaves.
"I'm basically using this as a simulation for sectionals, just to practice my mental game going in," said Hampole. "I want to lay out two solid programs before the qualifying competitions start and just have a very positive experience that will set me up for the season.
"The biggest difference in my skating this year is my consistency. Last year I had triples that were on and off but this year I've been making sure to follow this conveyor belt training, triples over and over again with choreography from my programs and that's resulted in consistency when I run through my program."
Hampole needs to finish in the top four at the section meet in Coquitlam to advance to the Skate Canada Challenge, Nov. 28 to Dec. 2 in Edmonton. He knows his routines and has every reason to feel confident about his skating. He just needs to stay healthy.
"I was considering withdrawing from Autumn Leaves but it turned out my body's feeling better and I'm skating well so I'm just going for it," said Hampole.
"It's the same injury that's been recurring. My sacroiliac joint isn't sitting right and it's putting a lot of stress on the ligaments and it flares up usually when training gets intense. It started around two years ago.
"It's taken a toll on my training but I've followed a strict regiment of recovery and I've been doing as much as I can on the ice. I think I was really smart with my plan my coaches (Rory Allen and Andrea Ludditt) came up with and now I feel very ready for the season."
Hampole was scheduled to skate his short program Friday night.
Thirteen other NBCCS skaters are competing this weekend at Autumn Leaves. Keira Bells (intro interpretive) and Ella Wedel (silver interpretive) started on Thursday.
Also on the ice Friday were Bells (Star 4 girls under-13), Reece Johnson (novice men's short), Calum Mckay Stratton (Star 4 boys), Jayna Mason (pre-novice women's short), Eilleen Reay (Star 4 girls under-13), and Halle Matlock (Star 4 girls under-13) .
Today, Makenzie Domhof and Kailey Logan will join Callaway in Star 7.
Also representing the club will be Hampole (junior men's free), Mason (pre-novice women's free), Johnson (novice men's free), Ally Norum (Star 9 women) and Colbie Norn (Star 5 girls under-10).
