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'...out of shadow into limelight'

... 01 out of shadow into limelight' By JEFF CROSS Province Figure Skating Writer TORONTO - There are going to be many sports spectaculars during Canada's centennial year, but as far as B.C. is concerned it's doubtful if any will measure up to the thrill of one which this weekend started the year on its way. As the Canadian Figure Skating Championships wound up to a climax here Sunday night, B.C. moved out of the shadow of Ontario and into the limelight of international class. There were 12 titles up for grabs here and B.C. skaters were in the hunt for 10 of them. Sunday night, six of those 10 were in the tight grasp of skaters from the West - exactly double the previous best-ever. And when officials of the Canadian Figure Skating Association met immediately after the championships to select the team to represent this country in the world championships at Vienna next month, B.C. had placed six on the 11 member team. Sunday's senior events brought the western domination of these championships to a head. Betty and John McKilligan, the red-head brother and sister duo from the North Shore Winter Club, breezed to the senior pairs championship with a sizzling display of skating pyrotechnics. Joni Graham and Don Phillips of the Kerrisdale Figure Skating Club did far more than had been expected of them by capturing the senior dance title. Karen Magnussen, the 14-year-old free-skating whiz from North Shore Winter Club, got the only 5.9 ratings of the entire championships (three of them) to chase Toronto's Valerie the way to the wire, before finishing in second place in the ladies senior competition. Successful defence And d North Shore's Jay Humphry moved up a notch over Dr. Charles Snelling of Toronto, to finish as runner-up to Don Knight of Dundas, Ontario, who successfully defended his own senior men's title. Canada will be represented in the world championships by eleven skaters Knight and Humphry in the men's singles, Miss Jones, Miss Magnussen and third place Roberta Laurent of Toronto in the women's singles; the McKilligan's in the pairs and the Graham-Phillips pair plus Judy Henderson and John Bailey of Toronto in the dance events. The most skaters B.C. has ever placed previously on a world championship squad is three - in 1962 and 1963. But if the senior competition dominated the scene here Sunday it was a junior crown won Saturday which gave the most satisfaction to the B.C. contingent. the free-skating section of the junior ladies' singles, Victoria's Heather Fraser put on a dazzling display of doublejumps to leap all the way from fifth place - where she had been after school figures - to first place overall. As one seasoned B.C. professional said after the performance: "That one championship was worth all the others put together." Ruth Hutchinson of Kerrisdale, who was leading after the figures, finished in fifth place. Just a whisker In the junior men's competition Saturday, David Coffin of North Shore Winter Club, who had led after compulsory figures, dropped into second place overall thanks to a fine free-skating show by Toronto's Bob Emerson. B.C. had no entry in the junior dance won by Donna Taylor and Bruce Lennie of Galt, Ontario, but the Kamloops pair of Sherry Biagioni and Ted Price, alone carrying the colors of B.C. in the junior pairs after the accident which sidelined Helen and Richard Askew, also of Kamloops, finished a creditable fourth, just a whisker out of third place. The individual performance by the B.C. youngsters were far ahead of anyone's expectations here. Lindsay Cowan of Capilano Club finished fifth, and Judy McLeod of North Shore sixth in the senior ladies' event to further enhance t the western motif of these championships - a motif which officials hope will be even more apparent when Canadian skaters, six of them from Greater Vancouver, take on the best in the world at Vienna next month.

Article from 30 Jan 1967The Province(Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada)

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