When Timothy Lum and partner Brianna Delmaestro dance, angels don’t actually run and hide their wings, like rocker Bryan Adams implied, but judges sure do sit up and take notice.
The newest ice dance pair in Aaron Lowe and Megan Wing’s Champs International Skating Centre stable of up-and-coming national-calibre junior dance skaters recorded the highest combined points total of the season, winning the Skate Canada Challenge in Pierrefonds, Que. last weekend.
Lum and Delmaestro, who were partnered together less than two years ago, topped the junior ice dance at Skate Canada with personal-best scores in both the short and free dance programs en route to a best-ever 141.64 total score.
Delmaestro was a singles skater until 2011, and both had different partners prior to being matched together in 2013.
The match produced instant results internationally, with two fifth-place efforts in International Skating Union Junior Grand Prix events last year and a pair of podium results this season, including a silver-medal skate at the Ljubljana Cup in Slovenia in August.
“(Timothy) definitely brings a lot of energy to our sessions. It really helps and it makes things fun,” said Delmaestro. “Somehow he pulls off being confident with being humble at the same time.”
The pair’s Skate Canada totals were more than 10 points higher than their previous international personal best, a tremendous leap in improvement in figure skating circles.
Lum and Delmaestro placed first after the short dance with a 56.10 score and then skated away with gold at Skate Canada with an 85.54 total in the free dance.
Focusing on the details and working together on accomplishing those much-needed higher levels is hard work, but making it feel like fun can not be understated.
“I think we really like each other and we’re very good friends,” Delmaestro added. “I think we really enjoy skating together. We’re both pretty motivated.”
Burnaby’s Danielle Wu and Spencer Soo placed second in the junior dance with a 130.30 total at Skate Canada, edging out third-place finishers Lauren Collins and Shane Firus of Central Ontario.
The Skate Canada Challenge is the only qualifying event for novice, junior and senior skaters for the national figure skating championships to be held in Kingston, Ont. from Jan. 19 to 25.
The Champs centre also had a strong contingent of junior women competing at Skate Canada.
Sectional singles women’s champion Kelsey Wong of Burnaby placed runner-up with a 126.38 total score to Alberta’s Triena Robinson at Skate Canada.
Sarah Tamura of Burnaby, who won last year’s novice sectional title, placed fourth.
Cailey England of Kelowna nipped Tamura and Champs centre skater Megan Yim by mere fractions of a point for a spot on the podium – all with 122-plus points – in a tightly packed race between B.C. skaters for the bronze medal
In international news, former national junior ice dance champions Madeline Edwards, 18, and 19-year-old ZhaoKai Pang of Burnaby are currently in Barcelona, Spain for the ISU Junior Grand Prix figure skating final.
Edwards and Pang are the only B.C. skaters that qualified for the final.
The Champs centre couple had a silver-medal performance in France and a gold-medal win in Aichi, Japan later in the GP season.
Ontario’s Mackenzie Bent and Garrett MacKeen will also compete in junior ice dance in Barcelona.
