Trina lands gold to complete hat trick

B. McNairn-Leader Staff

MORRISBURG – Good, Better, Best….that was the combination Morrisburg and District Figure Skater Trina Dykstra-MacPherson was aiming for when she started skating  at the Junior Bronze Level last winter. And that is the combination she completed with a gold medal skate performance at the 2013 Asticou Skating Club competition in Aylmer, Quebec, on Sunday, November 17.

Trina had the Good performance at her first competition at the Junior Bronze Level in Morrisburg last January for a third place finish. Then in April, she accomplished the Better to land a silver medal performance at a competition  in Gloucester.

She finished it off in Aylmer with the Best skate for her gold medal trip to the podium.

For the two minute and nine second program in Aylmer, Trina says, “I had a clean skate. Even the whole day, I didn’t fall at all. My technical marks were my strongest. My jumps and spins are both good.”

Included in Trina’s gold medal program are a Double Toe Jump, a Double Salchow and two Axel Jumps, one with a Loop. She also includes a Flip Loop and a Lutz.

“It was her first time trying her double toe in competition which she landed successfully,” says Trina’s coach Louise Dimmick. “Trina had a strong performance that really built on her training and previous competitions. She works hard at the rink and is very focused. It was nice to see her have this success.”

Twelve-year old Trina, is a grade 7 student at St. George Roman Catholic School in Long Sault. She has been skating since she was six years old and she says it is her “absolutely most favourite thing to do. My friends say to me ‘Trina, it is always skating…skating, skating, skating all the time’.”

Her love of the sport and her talent shows in her quick movement through the various skating programs. A member of the Morrisburg and District Figure Skating Club and a guest skater with the Nepean Figure Skating Club, Trina skated one year in the CanSkate program, one year in Junior, two years in Intermediate and is now a senior skater.

Trina says of her gold medal performance in Aylmer, that it “felt good” and she knew she had “skated really well,” when she left the ice.

In addition to winning gold with her solo skate as a Morrisburg club skater, Trina teamed with Nepean skaters Chloe Sills and Kiara Hartnell to claim a second gold medal at the Aylmer competition in Team Elements on behalf of the Nepean Skating Club.

For her part of the team event, Trina complete an Axel as her first element and a spiral sequence, which included a Biellman spiral and a Y spiral, as her second element.

Along with Trina’s Axel, “Chloe did an Axle Toe Loop and she landed it and Kierra did a Lutz and it was good.”

With the Aylmer skate behind her, Trina now turns her attention towards her season goal. “I want to get through all three stages of EOSIC and make it to Trillium.”

This year’s EOSIC (Eastern Ontario STARskate Invitational Championship) is being hosted by the Cornwall Figure Skating Club at the Benson Centre, February 14-16, 2014.

Trina skates six days per week, four in Morrisburg and travels to Nepean two nights per week, all the while working hard to keep up with her schoolwork. She is also a Canskate PA with the little ones in Morrisburg on Saturday mornings. 

She skates year-round and in the summer she adds ballet classes to her schedule which is an extension of her skate program in Nepean. 

In Nepean she works with three coaches including her Morrisburg coach Louise Dimmick. “Dan [Gordon, Nepean coach], says I have a good presentation and a good style of skating.”