Winnipeg pair skaters Ava Kemp and Yoni Elizarov’s dream of a season has hit an untimely speed bump.
Kemp sprained her ankle in a fluke accident during an off-ice warmup, forcing their last-minute withdrawal from Wednesday’s opener at Skate Canada Challenge.
Worse, the 14-year-old athlete has been advised not to resume training until next week, which means their trip to Italy for the Grand Prix Final — where they were to compete against the top junior pairs in the world — is off.
The pair had planned to debut their new, technically-souped-up Cirque du Soleil short program on home ice before departing for Turin on Monday.
“(The injury) is recovering nicely. It’s disappointing, but we’re just going to keep moving on and moving forward with the plan,” said the pair’s coach Kevin Dawe.