Kemp and Elizarov strike gold in Turkey

It’s not easy for any Canadian athlete to compete twice in the span of two weeks in two different European countries in jet-lagging time zones that require them to practise and deliver top-notch performances when their body clocks tell them it’s 3 a.m. or 8 a.m. back home.

Yet, Winnipeg figure skaters Ava Kemp and Yohnatan Elizarov overcame those challenges to pocket their second pairs gold medal on Friday in Turkey, one week after winning their first on the ISU Junior Grand Prix circuit in Latvia.

With two decisive wins, they qualified for the exclusive Junior Grand Prix Final in Nagoya, Japan in December which is limited to the top six couples in the world.

In addition to the hardware, Kemp, 17, and Elizarov, 21, return to their training site in Toronto with US$6,000 in prize money. The cash will come in handy considering annual costs for elite-level figure skaters run into the tens of thousands of dollars.

“Overall (we’re) happy, obviously,” Elizarov told Skate Canada’s NextGen high performance director Andre Bourgeois, the team leader for the event.

“We trained really hard this off-season, so it shows that we put the work in and trusted our training. I would say it was pretty mentally hard to do back-to-back (events), so I’m happy that we got through it and overcame the mental stress of it,” he added.

In Ankara, the duo recorded a higher total competition score (179.43) than the week prior in Riga and again outpaced the rest of the field by a considerable margin. Their performances were so strong, in fact, their total technical score of 94 would make them eligible to compete even at the 2025 senior World Championships and the Olympic Games.

However, according to ISU rules, Kemp and Elizarov must replicate those scores in senior international competition to be officially eligible for such events. There was no word on Friday from Skate Canada as to whether the couple will be offered that opportunity.

Through their four performances in Europe, the pair made no major errors. Kemp soared on the triple twist lifts and throw triple jumps thanks to Elizarov’s superb partnering skills. Their individual jumps had a couple of messy landings, but the two triples they now execute in their long program are on par with what the world’s best senior competitors do.

Kemp and Elizarov’s long program, set to Clair de Lune and expertly choreographed by Canadian greats Sandra Bezic and David Wilson, served to showcase the massive improvements the young team has made in the quality and maturity of their skating and performance skills since winning their second Canadian junior title last January.

“Showing the videos to Sandra and David, they always gave feedback of what to work on, where to look, and this and that, so we didn’t just make the program and kind of leave it. We made it and continuously made improvements throughout the off-season,” Elizarov explained.

Kemp and Elizarov have qualified for the Grand Prix Final twice before. An untimely ankle injury forced them to withdraw from the 2022 event, but they bounced back and made the cut again in 2023. At the final in Beijing, they claimed the silver medal. In the leadup to those events, they trained primarily at home in Winnipeg on Dakota and Winnipeg Winter Club ice.

They missed the Grand Prix season entirely last year due to Kemp’s back injury.