Wesley Chiu’s promising career on the ice is taking him to Montreal.
The Connaught Skating Club standout has been invited to participate in an upcoming national camp with other Novice level skaters from across the country.
Chiu, who is in Grade 7 at Richmond Christian, was the winner of B.C. Yukon Skating’s Male Youth Promise Award thanks to an outstanding 2016-17 competitive season that was highlighted by a silver medal performance in the Pre-Novice Division at the Skate Canada Challenge in Pierrefonds, QC back in December. A terrific long program moved Chiu from ninth place to the podium in a division that featured 42 competitors.
He has since moved up to Novice for the 2017-18 season and won bronze at last month’s B.C. SummerSkate Super Series in Burnaby.
“This is an initiative from Skate Canada that identifies some of the youngest talent coming up maybe for the next couple of Olympic cycles (after 2018),” explained Chiu’s coach and Connaught’s director of programs Keegan Murphy. “Wesley had to do a certain technical content through the summer competitions to even be considered and he got selected. It’s a wonderful opportunity to be training along side other top young skaters in the country in a non-competitive environment. I’m excited for him.”
Meanwhile, two other Connaught skaters are in Croatia this week to make their competitive debut at an ISU Junior Grand Prix Event.
Micah Lynette and James Thompson will be representing Thailand and Australia respectively at the Croatia Cup which has attracted a world class field.
Both have taken advantage of their family heritage to reach the world stage.
“We have done this with a lot of different kids over the years and we have the experience here to get them ready for international events,” explained Murphy. “They won’t be on the podium but working towards a top 10 would be a huge achievement for both of them.”
Lynette is coming off a busy August that saw him travel overseas to represent Thailand at a senior men’s competition in Hong Kong, then the 29th South East Asia Games in Malaysia, where he just missed the podium, finishing fourth.
“In Hong Kong, I was up against skaters I have been watching on TV for years. It’s a big difference skating with them compared to with the young kids I do it with here,” he said.
“In Malaysia, it was a lot of fun, meeting lots of different people and it was definitely the loudest competition I have ever been to. I was targeting third going into it and was sitting right there after my short (program) but the long got away from me a bit.”
Lynette will again see many familiar faces in Croatia as he skates on the world stage for the very first time. His goal is to perform well enough to qualify for the 2018 Junior Worlds in Bulgaria.
“I’m really excited for the experience,” he added. “I’m will just be trying to hit scores for Junior Worlds and skate to the level I have been training at.”
