The Niverville Skating Club’s synchro skating team, Aurora Ice, attended the 2018 Skate Canada Manitoba Crocus Invitational Synchronized Skating Competition in Souris, Manitoba on March 17.
At the competition, 24 synchro skating teams competed, coming from all over the province at the St. Patrick’s Day event. Aurora Ice won silver for their skate in the Beginner 2 category.
“In order to be a competitive synchro team, there must be eight skaters minimum on the team,” says Leslie Bardal, president of the Niverville Skating Club. “This is our first year with a competitive team and they have been training hard every Tuesday night at the Niverville Arena.”
In addition to training on-ice, every member of the team spends 45 minutes per week off-ice, developing their dance skills and building core muscle strength and balance.
The team’s skaters range from CanSkate Stage 4 to StarSkate Level 3, including two male skaters.
Bardal adds that the team’s outfits were generously donated by the Morris Skating Club, and their choreography was developed with the assistance of volunteer coach Heather Hamblin.
“We greatly appreciated her time, knowledge, and skill,” Bardal says of Hamblin. “Her dedication to the sport of synchronized skating was to our benefit and it was a pleasure to work with her.”
