Brazil continued to expand its presence in the international figure skating community this year by sending its first man to compete in an ISU Championship. Kevin Alves, 16, accomplished that feat when he finished 19th at the Four Continents Championship in Goyang, Korea in 2008. Alves followed up his debut two weeks later with a 35th place finish at the World Junior Figure Skating Championships in Sofia, Bulgaria.
"My goal for this season was just to get a lot of experience and see what it was like to skate with the best in the world," Alves said. "Next year, I hope to skate even stronger."
Alves used to skate in Canada, placing eighth in pre-novice men in 2006 and sixth in novice at Sectionals in 2007. He was fourth in juniors as a guest at Sectionals this season. He switched to skating for Brazil for the 2007-08 season. "My mom was born in Brazil and we had talked about skating for Brazil for a while," said Alves, who was born in Newmarket, Ontario, Canada.
Kevin will be competing this season in the Four Continents Championships in Vancouver. In March Kevin will also compete in the 2009 World Championships.
Canadians Vanessa Crone and Paul Poirier claimed the silver medal in the ice dance competition at BMO Canadian Championships in Saskatoon.
Crone, from Aurora, Ont., and Poirier, from Unionville, Ont., were in second place following Friday's orignal dance but scored 84.40 in the free program and 175.58 total to take the silver.
They are the 2009 Canadian Silver Medalists in the Senior Dance event.
Vanessa and Paul will be representing Canada in the 2009 World Championships.
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