Prince George’s Justin Hampole skated to a Bronze medal today at Kin 1 in men’s pre-novice figure skating.
Following up a clean short program on Tuesday that had him seeded second going into the long program, the 13 year old says he is thrilled with his performance and surpassed his own expectations.
“Well I was expecting maybe top 5 or 6. I was setting a goal for 90 points and I reached that goal. I thought 90 points was going to be a long shot and be pretty hard to get, but I did it and I’m really happy.”
Justin finished with a score of 91.88 across both programs.
“I was so nervous, I’ve never been that nervous before.” Justin said “I said that going into my short program but I was even more nervous today.”
Kin 1 was standing room only by the time Justin took the ice as the second to last skater. When he finished his skate, the crowd roared in support and showered the ice in a tidal wave of roses.
“That was wonderful.” Justin said “Being a hometown person, everyone knows who I am right now because I’ve been in the news, I think it was just fantastic. The crowd was awesome.”
When questioned about how well he slept last night, Justin said with a grin that he is rooming with three other skaters and didn’t get to bed until midnight. He also forgot to set his alarm clock for the morning, causing him to nearly miss his 7am practice.
Overall the Canada Games for Justin have “been a great experience”.
Second place went to Samuel Turcotte of Quebec with a score of 93.59 while 10 year old Ontario prodigy Stephen Gogolev won gold with 114.74 points.
Photo credit: Justin Hampole during his short program – CanGames2015
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