Eric Liu won the advanced novice boys figure skate at the Gardena Spring Trophy competition in Italy last weekend.
The 12-year-old Burnaby skater won both the short and free programs at the international event in Val Gardena.
Liu, who is trained by Joanne McLeod and Neil Wilson at the B.C. Centre of Excellence in Burnaby, beat out seven other skaters for the gold medal, garnering 125.71 points to beat runner-up Koshiro Shimada of Japan by nearly seven points. Marco Bozzuto of Italy placed third in the group.
Liu was a bronze medalist in the junior men’s category at the recent Canadian national figure skating championships. Last year, he also earned a second-place medal as a novice at the Canadian championships.
Two other young, up-and-coming Centre of Excellence skaters, Sarah Tamura and Megan Yim, both made it atop the podium in the advanced novice girls competition at Val Gardena.
Tamura, 13, won the 18-skater event, including the short program, with a best score of 99.05 points. It was the international debut for the Canadian novice women’s champion.
Lucrezia Gennaro of Italy placed second with 94.76 points, just eight points ahead of Yim in third.
Yim, 12, was second behind Tamura after the short but still managed to finish with a medal despite placing fourth in the long program. Yim was this year’s novice women’s bronze medallist at the recent nationals.
The three medals won by Centre of Excellence skaters were the first-ever for Canada at the advanced novice level since the competition was expanded to include the category in 2006.
Kelsey Wong of Burnaby also finished 16th in the junior ladies competition at the Spring Trophy event.
