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Thrill of the competition, joy of skating takes two skaters to the top

The Skate Ontario Starskate Championships take place in Kingston, Ontario on March 16-18

A Collingwood skating coach with 27 years of instructing under his blades is taking two skaters to provincial level competition for the first time.

Michael Koshilka is heading to the Skate Ontario Starskate Championships with two of his Collingwood skaters: Sarah Raynsford and Aryanna Locking.

“I’m really proud of them,” said Koshilka. He’s been to nine provincial championships as a coach, but never had two skaters qualify in the same year. “They work really hard. They want it.”

Both Locking and Raynsford will compete in the triathlon event, which means they must perform three different programs, a freeskate, a creative skills and an artistic interpretive.

“A lot of skaters don’t do [triathlon] because it’s too hard,” said Koshilka.

In Canadian figure skating, an athlete can choose a competitive stream or a test stream. The competitive is the path to national and international-level competition, and the one taken by Olympic Skaters. Locking and Raynsford are test stream skaters, but there are competitions for that stream all year long.

This is Raynsford’s fourth time going to the provincial championships. She’s headed in ranked first in the province. This year, her creative interpretive program has scored higher in competition than any interpretive at any level has ever scored in Ontario.

The program is a story about a fortune teller – played by Raynsford – who has to tell a bad fortune, then a good fortune.

“I feel super powerful skating the program,” said Raynsford. “It’s a big change in character from the bad fortune to the good, I think that’s why it does well.”

She said the best part of skating it is the reaction she gets from the judges, who are drawn in to the program as she acts out her character and story.

“They eat it up,” she said.

Her creative skills program and her freeskate is set to Black Betty – a choice her coach said she had “strong opinions about.”

Raynsford watched Spanish figure skater Javier Fernández López (the bronze medallist in men’s freeskate at the 2018 Olympics) skate to Black Betty and instantly decided the music was perfect for her.

“It’s so me, I’m so energetic. I’m here for a good time,” she said.

Raynsford lives in Tara, attends high school in Owen Sound, skates in Collingwood and still finds time to coach figure skating in Owen Sound as well.

“Skating gives me a reason to wake up, it brings me pure joy. It feels so good,” she said.

She will be attending and skating for McMaster University next year taking an undergraduate degree in a health science field with the ultimate goal of becoming a sports medicine doctor.

Locking is headed to provincials for the first time. She hoped to qualify last year but missed it due to illness.

“I made it my goal to qualify this year,” she said. She’s ranked 12th headed into the competition.

Locking’s favourite program is the less popular creative skills. Hers is set to Walk Like an Egyptian. Creative skills is about turns, footwork and field movements like spirals.

“I love footwork, it’s my favourite,” said Locking, who draws inspiration from Kurt Browning a Canadian skater renowned for his footwork.

Locking’s interpretive skate is about a girl having a nightmare and her freeskate is set to Celtic music.

For Locking, skating is thrilling.

“You go through so much, it’s a mental challenge as well as a physical one,” she said. “Competing is to test yourself and to push yourself as much as you can.”

Locking started skating later in life than most at her level. She was ten when she first started taking lessons, and about a year into her skating career she started learning with Koshilka.

She said they developed a bond similar to a niece and uncle.

“We kid with each other, we’re straightforward. He knows my limits, but he pushes me too,” she said. “I’d be nowhere near where I am now without him.”

Both Locking and Raynsford have been working with Koshilka for six years.

This is Locking’s final year competing. Next year she will focus more on school. She’ll still skate, but more for fun.

“I can’t really picture not skating,” she said.

For now, she’s focused on her provincial competition, the realization of her goal this year.

“I really just want to finish my competitive career happy with my skate,” she said. “I don’t care where I rank, I want to be proud when I step off the ice.”

The Skate Ontario Starskate Championships take place in Kingston, Ontario on March 16-18.


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Erika Engel

About the Author: Erika Engel

Erika regularly covers all things news in Collingwood as a reporter and editor. She has 15 years of experience as a local journalist
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