Local skater to represent at Ontario games

Local skater to represent at Ontario games. Parry Sound skater Sarah Latimer, 13, heads to the 2010 Ontario Winter Games in Muskoka next week. Cody Storm Cooper/North Star file photo

PARRY SOUND - The excitement in Sarah Latimer’s voice is palpable.
In a little more than a week, the 13-year-old will be among the province’s finest at the 2010 Ontario Winter Games in Muskoka.
This is the Grade 8 student’s second time at the winter games; the first was two years ago, when she competed in the juvenile age category.
“I’m going for the experience and hopefully in the next two years I’ll be up in the higher group,” Sarah said.
This year she will be competing in the pre-novice level, going head-to-head against skaters three years her senior.
Sarah qualified for the games by competing in the BMO Financial Group Sectional Skating Championships. The top three move on to the Ontario Winter Games – Sarah placed first.
“I am very, very excited,” she said. “We go with our team and normally we go to watch a couple other events and the opening ceremonies – it’s a lot of fun. The figure skating part is in Huntsville at their brand new double ice pad.”
Sarah has been skating since she was three, attends about five competitions annually and practices several times a week in Parry Sound, Humphrey and Barrie.
“I go to Barrie each Monday and I work with Doug Leigh for my jumps and my main coach Stacey Brayford,” she said. “We’ve been training my programs really, really hard in Parry Sound and in Humphrey and just working to try and improve my elements to the best that they can be. And it takes a lot of hard work.”
She also works with Paige Aistrop for spins and Paul Matheson for stroking and speed in Barrie.
During the summer, when most kids her age are swimming, Sarah is skating.
“I skate three days a week in Barrie and I stay at my coach Stacey’s house for those two nights and then I skate there Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday,” she said. “This year I might even do more, but that’s what I’ve done for the last couple of years.
“I would love to go to the Olympics, that would be so much fun, but I’m not sure if it’s possible, because it’s so expensive, and I’d probably have to move somewhere else and I’m not sure I’d want to do that,” Sarah said of her future plans.
“But if I had the chance to go, I would love to go. Right now we’re just taking it year by year and enjoying it, but a closer goal would probably be qualifying for senior nationals.”
The Ontario Winter Games run at venues throughout Muskoka from March 4 to 7.

Small - Large
|
Print
|
Email
|
|

More Stories

Watt puts charge in robotics competition

GRAVENHURST - It wasn’t all about grace and speed at the Muskoka Boat and Heritage Centre last Friday; it was also about form and function, ingenuity and originality. Some 150 elementary students from across the Trillium Lakes District School Board gathered at the Gravenhurst-based heritage centre May 11 to do battle with their minds and the robots that did their bidding. Faced with a theme of forestry this year, the students were challenged to build robots that would assist the forestry industry in cutting, tree removal and harvesting, and land reclamation with as little environmental impact as possible.

Shield Sold

Neil Etienne | May 18

Muskoka youth steal the limelight