CORNER BROOK Sights set on winning a medal on the national stage, Matthew and Alexandra Young will train all season at an elite training centre for pairs skaters in Montreal.
Corner Brook natives Matthew, 20, and Alexandra, 18, hope to be on the podium at the national junior skating championships in their final year of eligibility. The pairs team hope the move to Quebec will improve their chances of reaching the podium.
The siblings, in their third and final year of junior, have been training at the same centre the past couple of years, going back and forth to Corner Brook. When an opening came open, the Youngs jumped at the opportunity to make a permanent move for their last year of junior eligibility.
Both believe the move should improve their stock on the national stage, with more ice-time available to them and being able to feed off the energy of other skaters sharing the same mindset.
“I think it’s going to be a great move,” Matthew said earlier this week from outside Montreal. “We’re skating three to four hours a day, Monday to Friday, as opposed to one or two at home. We’re training with other pairs, so it’s a lot more motivational for us to train. We’re here to train, so that’s what our main focus is.”
They will participate in an invitational competition in Shawinigan, Que. later this month, so they will have a sense of how much progress they’ve made. Alexandra said the move to Montreal is critical to their success and she’s ready to put in all the work.
“I think this is a great opportunity for us. We’re both really excited to come up here,” she said. “We spent a lot of time here in previous years getting ready for competitions, so now this gives us the opportunity to train here full-time. This is really great for us and we should be able to improve lots this year.”
