It’s a brave new world, and Burnaby’s Sarah Tamura couldn’t help but feel thrilled.
Tamura embraced her debut
on the senior national level, competing among Canada’s best skaters at the 2017 Canadian Tire national skating championships before a packed, appreciative crowd.
A fifth-place finish is a great stepping stone in her development, and as one of the youngest senior ladies competing at last week’s national skating championships in Ottawa, Tamura is eager to grow from it.
“It was definitely a great experience,” recalled Tamura, who celebrated her 16th birthday on Saturday. “It was pretty cool at the gala (on Sunday) too, to work with all these top level skaters. I definitely connected with the top three ladies.”
Those three – champion Kaetlyn Osmond, 21, runner-up Gabrielle Daleman, 19, and Alaine Chartrand, 20 – took the three spots on the podium with scores of 219.66, 211.09 and 182.07.
Promoted to the senior level after winning last year’s national junior title at the age of 15, Tamura spent the past season training for both junior and senior events. But the nationals are a stage unto their own, and the Burnaby Central student said standing alongside the likes of Daleman and Osmond was an amazing memory.
In her short program, Tamura laid down a pretty clean performance that began with a sharp triple lutz-triple toe. She executed a triple loop, and when her score was tabulated, Tamura beamed as the 60.09 points placed her temporarily first after the first 15 of 18 skaters.
The next day’s free skate, choreographed by Shae-Lynn Bourne and which began with the same striking triple lutz-
triple toe combo, was marred by three falls which resulted in a four-point deduction. Her free skate tally was 102.03, which ended up sixth-best and short of her best mark set as a junior.
With a final combined tally of 162.12, the Champs International Skating Centre athlete stood four points back of Coquitlam’s Larkyn Austman and 20 points short of bronze.
“I need to work on my skating skills and trying to nail those other jumps in the program,” said Tamura. “I have to get stronger skating as a senior, because the difference I think is speed, power and presentation.”
Yes, there is work still to do, but with the medal winners ages 19 to 21, the teen has youth and determination on her side.
“I was very pleased and proud of how I coped with the crowds and my nerves,” she noted. “I wouldn’t say I felt a lot of pressure (going into the free skate), I just was focusing on going out and doing my best.”
Tamura’s reward for her hard work came in an assignment from Skate Canada as the lone junior ladies skater among 12 skaters selected to compete in the ISU Junior World Figure Skating championships in Taipei in March.
It will be her second straight year attending the event, with the goal of bolting up the ranks past last year’s 13th-place mark. Aged up to the senior level and unable to defend the national junior crown, being chosen to represent Canada at the World Juniors was the hoped-for outcome, she said.
“My goal was to make the national team and I achieved it,” said Tamura. “It was a great way to end the competition… I definitely want to be in the top-10 (at the World Juniors), and go in skating my best and show them what I can do.”
Fellow Champs skater and Vancouver native Megan Yim, 15, placed eighth overall.
