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Skating for big figures
Stojko headlines $517,000 event
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Ninety-two skaters from 13 countries in North America, South America, Oceania (Australia/New Zealand) and Asia will compete in the four skating disciplines.
Elvis Stojko, the three-time world champion and two-time Olympic silver medallist, landed in town Monday night, and is one of the biggest names competing at the Metro Centre.
Also in town are seven-time Canadian ice-dance champs Shae-Lynn Bourne and Victor Kraatz, Canadian women's champion Jennifer Robinson and two-time Canadian pairs gold medallists Kristy Sargent and Kris Wirtz.
The Four Continents competition was established by the International Skating Union after skaters expressed interest in having a chance to compete prior to the world championships, like the Europeans have been doing for decades.
A total of $517,000 US in prize money is up for grabs this week.
Peter Montopoli, vice-president of marketing for the Skating Events Trust of the Canadian Figure SkatingAssociation, said Halifax is a proven figure skating city for three main reasons.
"Halifax has a credible volunteer base, has great support from corporate sponsors and, finally, it has one of the best skating audiences in the world," Montopoli said at a reception honouring volunteers and corporate sponsors.
Barb MacDonald, the CFSA's communication manager, said Monday that there are 1,000 tickets left for tonight's compulsory dance (6 p.m.) and pairs short program (8:30 p.m.) competitions. There are also just 1,000 tickets for Wednesday night's ladies short program and the pairs final and Thursday's original dance and ladies final.
But tickets are scarcer at the end of the week with a few hundred left for Friday's men's short program and ice-dance final and Saturday's men's final.
Sunday's Parade of Champions is sold out, but MacDonald said a few tickets may be released after camera positions are completely worked out.
Other skaters to watch are the 1998 Skate Canada pairs champions Xue Shen and Hongbo Zhao of China, Canadian pairs silver medallists Jamie Sale and David Pelletier, ISU Grand Prix finalist Tatyana Malinina of Uzbekistan, and 1998 Skate Canada silver medallist Fumie Suguri of Japan.
In the men's event there are several quad-jumping dynamos.
Joining Stojko in the quad world are Japan's Takeshi Honda, China's Chengjiang Li and Zhengxin Guo, Australia's Anthony Liu, Canada's Emanuel Sandhu, and American Timothy Goebel.
Tickets for the event are available at the Metro Centre box office.