A pair of Connaught Skating standouts have been recognized at the provincial level for their decorated competitive seasons.
David Li is the 2019 recipient of B.C. Yukon Skating Association’s Youth Promise Award.
The Grade 6 student at Whiteside Elementary won silver in Pre-Novice at B.C. Yukon Sectionals and Skate Canada Challenge. He then later captured bronze at the Canada Winter Games in Red Deer.
He follows at tradition for the club that has seen Mitchell Gordon and Wesley Chiu as past recipients of the award on their way up the competitive ranks.
“It’s for athletes under the age of 13 that have achieved a very high technical level and national ranking this past year. Only one boy in the province is chosen and we are very proud it’s David,” said Keegan Murphy, Connaught’s director of programs. “It’s a testament of his improvement over the past year to be so highly ranked.”
Li has now moved on to the Novice level and will be competing in this weekend’s Victoria Day Super Series in Surrey. He has expanded his jumps to now include a triple salchow and triple toe.
“I don’t think there is any added pressure that comes with winning the award,” said Li. “It’s more to encourage me and push me to do better.”
Wesley Chiu is the recipient of this year’s Toller Cranston Award.
The Grade 8 Richmond Christian student had a phenomenal season in Novice that included gold medal skates at Canadian Championships, Skate Canada Challenge and BC Yukon Sectionals.
He also added silver at the Canada Winter Games when he skated to new programs he was working on for his jump to Junior Men’s.
“The award is more about Wesley’s artistic ability than his results. He would have won it even without his gold medals,” added Murphy. “It just shows how well-rounded his development is.”
Chiu will also be part of Skate Canada’s NextGen Team for the coming season which was created to support the operations of Skate Canada’s high-performance development system.
