Top skaters headed to Kentville

Browning, Haw to work with local skaters Oct. 21-22

Four-time world champion Kurt Browning and Level 5 master coach Douglas Haw will be presenting a seminar to skaters from local clubs and beyond later this month.

Browning and Haw will be on the ice from 9 a.m. until 5 p.m. Oct. 21 and Haw will return to the ice with the skaters Oct. 22. In addition to offering their expertise to skaters from the age of eight to 15, several local coaches will also be in attendance to learn as much as they can.

Kentville club coach Cheryle Gaston was instrumental in arranging for the duo to come to the Valley. Sixty skaters from as far away as New Brunswick scooped up the limited spots in less than three weeks. More than 30 of them are from local Valley clubs.

Several of the local skaters participating in the seminar are age eligible for the Canada Winter Games in 2019 and the event will serve as a kick-off to their goal of perhaps making the Nova Scotia Team for those games.

Browning won his second of four world titles in Halifax in 1990, the same year he won the coveted Lou Marsh Award as Canada’s top athlete. He made history as the first skater to land a quad in world competition. He is a favorite performer in Stars On Ice.

Haw is a former national competitor and national level judge in all disciplines of figure skating. With over 30 years of coaching experience in Canada and the USA, he has produced national, international, world and Olympic competitors and trained many professional skaters such as Brian Orser and currently Browning. He is the highest certified coach in North America, attaining his master rating in figures, free skating and moves in the field with the Professional Skaters Association in the USA and his NCCP Level 5 in Canada.

The seminar is open for viewing to the public.