Strong local presence at Ontario skating sectionals

It’s a new structure, with a centuryold goal: qualifying for the Canadian Figure Skating Championships.

Seventeen skaters from Hamilton and Burlington skating clubs qualified for the Skate Ontario sectional championships, which run through Sunday at the Sixteen Mile Sports Complex in north Oakville.

This is the first year of a “unified” Ontario under the Skate Canada organizational structure. Previously, there were four regions, with each holding its own sectional event to qualify skaters for the national championship. The top four finishers would head to the Skate Canada Challenge, the second-last step toward the national championships.

With the four sections rolled into one Ontario region, the top 16 from the province will advance to the Challenge, which will be held in Montreal in the first week of December. There, novice, junior and senior skaters vie to qualify for nationals Jan. 8-14 in Vancouver.

That event will also choose Canada’s 2018 Olympic team for Pyeongchang, South Korea, in February. For pre-novice skaters, the Challenge is their last stop on the competitive trail.

At the Ontario sectionals, the Burlington Skating Centre is represented by: Olivia McIsaac, who teams with Barrie’s Elliot Graham ( junior dance); Isabella Mancini, who skates with Gloucester’s Christain Reekie ( junior pairs); Amber Carson, Olivia Farrow and Atira Yuen (junior women); Eric Xu (pre-novice men); Maja Jacobsen (pre-novice women); and Amanda Tobin (senior women).

Tobin finished fifth at nationals in the junior women’s division.

The Hamilton Skating Club is represented at sectionals by: Alistair Lam, who was third in novice at last year’s Canadian championships, and moves up to the junior men’s ranks this season; Bridget Le Donne, who skates with Jakub Smal of Waterloo (novice dance); Rachel Morgan ( junior women); and Liam McKenzie (novice men); Giuliana Corsini, Justess Lancia and Gabriella Le Donne (novice women); Caelin Estrabillo and Perri Kismir, (pre-novice women).

Additionally, Maysie Poliziani, who won the Canadian novice women’s silver medal four years ago skating for coach Bryce Davison of the Hamilton Skating Club, is in the senior women’s field, but now represents Brampton-Chinguacousy.