FIGURE SKATING

Grayson Lochhead becomes Woodstock’s first figure skating national gold medalist

Woodstock's Grayson Lochhead, right, and partner Olivia Han won gold in the novice dance division at the 2016 National Skating Championship in Halifax, N.S. The pair will likely jump to the junior division next year after a successful two years in pre-novice and novice. (Submitted photo)

When Grayson Lochhead and Olivia Han were skating off the ice, they knew they had put themselves in a place to win nationals.

As they reached their seats a few feet from the ice, the announcer broadcasted their points total. With the sound of the tally ringing through the Halifax, N.S. arena, Lochhead turned his head to the right to look at Han and a smile overtook his face.

“As soon as they announced that, I turned to Olivia and said, ‘we won! we won!’,” Lochhead said as they realized they had won gold in the novice dance division at the 2016 National Skating Championship.

The pair finished with a two-day total of 90.26 points - slightly more than a full point ahead of the second place team - to claim top spot after they entered the final dance in second place and a little more than a year after they won silver in the pre-novice division at Sake Canada’s challenge championships.

“In first-year, we did really well. It was a natural fit,” Lochhead, 16, said, adding they wanted to improve on last years second place finish but it wasn’t the entire motivating factor at nationals.

“I was thinking it’d be disappointing if we didn’t improve. Pre-novice to novice is a bit of a jump, not quite like going to junior, but being a first-year and to win is pretty cool,” he noted.

Following a successful first-year, the two continued to succeed this past skating season, though admittedly with the occasional bump in the road that any team’s affected by.

The odd argument or conflict would flare up, but with the common goal of continuing to improve, and their coaches guidance, they refined their on-ice performances.

In all their competitions at the novice level this past year, they either finished first or second as they improved on their first season with one eye towards a promising future.

“We had some good achievements over the last couple of years which made us feel more motivated towards our next goals,” Han, who represents the Kitchener-Waterloo Skating Club, said in an email. “The competitions kept us together from arguing and conflicts because we had one goal and we had to do that together. The sport is not possible with only one person, so that's what we really appreciated each other on.”

For Lochhead, who represents the Woodstock Skating Club and is a former College Avenue Secondary School student, he becomes the first Woodstock skater to win a national gold medal.

In an email, Marie Bowerman the former longtime WSC administrator, wrote others have come close but not quite hit the mark. Eddie Collins won silver at nationals with his partner, Ann Martin, in 1958 and Ross Garner also won silver in 1964 with his partner Sharon Davis. Julie Bowerman also earned silver at nationals in novice ladies’ category in 1973 and a bronze in the junior division in 1974.

And now with little left to accomplish at the novice level, the pair will move into the junior division with sights on competing at international events that’s part of the International Skating Union.

Winning silver and gold in their division at the national level will no doubt start to garner attention their way.

“Since we won novice, we might get a chance to compete in International events,” Han said in an email, “which means we will have to skate even better than just Canadian juniors but also international junior ice dancers… but we also need to improve on a lot of things.”

They’ll continue to train in their off-season, albeit at a much less rigorous pace than their usual 10 or more hours a week.

And though any competitor prefers to look forwards than backwards when it comes to accomplishments, it’s hard not to enjoy success.

“Eventually people will stop saying congratulations,” Lochhead said, “but it’s really cool.”