(Posted 7:30 a.m., April 15)
Orléans miss captures silver medal at Spring Festival StarSkate event
By Fred Sherwin
Orléans Online

Chantal Prouse won a silver medal at the recent Spring Festival StarSkate event hosted by the Gloucester Skating Club. Photo supplied

The Gloucester Figure Skating Club held its annual Spring Festival event on the weekend and at least one member of the club came through with flying colours.

Chantal Prouse landed not one, but two double axels for the first time in competition to win the silver medal in the preliminary intermediate division. She might have garnered enough points to win the gold if not for the tumble she took on a simple cross cut after completing her second double axel.

"My blade got caught in the ice after I had already completed the double and I just fell. It was too bad, but I completed all my jumps which was really good," says the 11-year-old Prouse who didn't start landing the double axels until two weeks before the competition.

Besides landing the two doubles, she also completed her two combo jumps, a lutz loop-axel toe loop combination and a flip toe loop combo.

Prouse puts a lot of work into her skating. Besides practicing the elements of her routine four times a week for an hour each time, she also takes dance lessons, ballet and dry land jumping.

"At out level it's very hard and difficult.You have to have lots of cardio and flexibility," says Prouse who first began skating when she was just four years old.

Heading into the Spring Festival, Prouse drew inspiration from her two Olympic heroes, Evgeny Pleschenko and Joannie Rochette -- especially Rochette.

"She was so brave. It took lots of guts for her to skate after her mother died. I was happy she won the bronze," says Prouse who plans to continue skating as long as she can. 'I really love skating and competing. It's a lot of fun."

(This story was made possible thanks to the generous support of our local business partners.)

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