Troy Shantz
As the music faded and the crowd erupted, Sarnia’s Michael Marinaro suspected he and partner Kirsten Moore-Towers had just became Canadian Champions.
“We were pretty confident in our ending position that we’d done enough to pull through,” Marinaro told The Journal.
“It wasn’t perfect, but we were pretty confident we did enough to secure the victory.”
The 202.75 points they tallied over two programs was enough to win gold in senior pairs at the National Skating Championships Jan. 19-20 in St. John, N.B.
“We’ve had our eyes on the top of the podium the whole time… I’ve had that goal to be Canadian Champion for a long time, since I was a boy,” said Marinaro, who won bronze with Moore-Towers at the nationals in 2017 and 2018.
“Glad it finally came to fruition and we did it.”
The pair, now ranked third in the world, is in Montreal this week preparing for the Four Continents Figure Skating Championships in Anaheim next month. Then it’s off to Japan for the World Championships in March.
The gold was their first in international competition and earned them an automatic berth at the Worlds.
Marinaro and Moore-Towers finished 11th at the 2018 Winter Olympics and sixth at last year’s world championships in Italy.
“Gaining experience last year at the Olympics, gaining experience through winning the national title, all these little notches help us to be more prepared and knowing what to expect,” Marinaro said.
“We’re ready to try and make some noise on the world stage.”
In the meantime, they’re continuing to hone their routine.
“A couple little technical things we definitely have to clean up in the next two weeks. It will be a little less forgiving at the Four Continents.”
Marinaro, 27, began skating at the Point Edward Skating Club at the age of four. By the time he was 10 he’d set his sights on becoming an Olympian.
Last June, he and his family hosted an event at the Point Edward Community Hall to thank the community for its financial and emotional support leading up to the PyeongChang Games in South Korea.