15 - Wednesday, Juls 18, 1990 -

St’s a small. . . world

PAGE 21

North Shore News

NV figure skaters tour the world

LAURA MILLMAN says it’s the best combination she could want in her life right now.

“EU be doing something | love, seeing the world and get- ting paid for it,"" says the 19- year-old North Vancouver fig- ure skater, who will leave next Friday on a tour that will take her around the globe over a period of four years.

Millman will travel as part of the Europe-based Holidays on Ice team, which is similar to the Ice Capades. For 10 months of cach year, the group will perform throughout Europe, Central America, and the Far East.

Amy Choo, member of the

17, a former Black Dia-

figure- ..0ff to

WORTH Vancouver skater Amy Choo Bern.

monds Precision Skating Team of the North Vancouver Skating Club, will also travel to Bern, Switzerland as a member of Holidays on Ice.

Both Millman and Choo were selected after auditions by several contestants from across Canada and will join a team consisting of 30 to 40 skaters from around the world.

“Tl can’t explain the feeling,” says Millman of her reaction when heard she had _ been selected. **But I knew that all the hard work had paid off.”

Millman has been skating for a long time. A sister of three older brothers, she attended Upper Lynn Elementary and graduated from Argyle Sec- ondary in 1988.

She credits her mother, Susan Zechman, with being her biggest and most consistent supporter.

JULY 21-The 1990 Ambleside Beach Volleyball Classic is a co-ed 4 X 4 tournament organized by West Vancouver Parks & Recre- ation and the North Shore YM- CA. Registration forms are avail- able at the West Vancouver Ree- reation Centre, the North Shore YMCA, and The Sporting Look. Entry fees for each team is $50. For more information, contact Paul McMillan at 926-3266 or Mile Williams at 926-5541.

wwe

By PATRICK RAYNARD

Contributing Writer

“Mom was incredible.”’ Millman says admiringly. ‘*She has always been there. She was always totally supportive when things were down and | wanted to quit. And Mom was always there to drive me to practice at 6a.m.”

Millman also praises the four coaches who have trained her since she first started skating at the age of 10 — Ronase Manering, Gary Patterson, Bruno Delmaestro and Elise Patz, all of North Vancouver -- and the teachers at Argyle Secondary School who en- couraged her and allowed her to do her school work around the relentless skating practices and the travelling.

Millman has travelled throughout B.C. and the Pacific Northwest and has per- formed in London, Ontario as a precision skater.

When asked what advice she would give other young people who contemplate a career in sports, Millman is firm.

“If this is what you want to do, don’t let anyone else influ- ence your decision,’’ she says. “Stay with it, no matter what. It takes discipline, discipline, discipline.”

Millman, who is 5’ 10" — **very tall for a figure skater’’ — and weighs 135 pounds, says she has never smoked. She believes that swimming § is

always good exercise, and she .

does a lot of tight circuit weight training. For energy food, she eats pasta before competitions.

And what makes all of this worthwhile? The creative, especially the musical element of figure skating is whai gives Millman her biggest joy, she says.

“The artistic show side is what I’ve always enjoyed the most. This has definitely been my forte.

After giving up her job at the Homestead Restaurant on Lonsdale, which her brother Chris, 20, manages, Millman will fly to Switzerland for rehearsals, then embark on a tour that will start with Nice, Orleans, Geneva, and Zurich, and move on to such countries as Germany, Belgium and Czechoslovakia.

JULY 22-The Royal LePage Whistler Triathlon leaves Loss Lake at 8 a.m. with the ETA for first finishers at 10 a.m. at the Chateau) Whistler Resort. Top contenders include North Van- couver’s Carol Montgomery and Paut Granger.

SULY 22-The Vancouver Sea Fes- tival Fun Run is a 7-km=orun around the Seawall. The race leaves Lumberman’s Arch at 8:30 acm. and finishes at Sunset Beach.

NEWS photo Cindy Goodman

LAURA MILLMAN, here practising at the North Shore Winter Club, will leave Friday for Bern, Switzerland to join the Holidays on Ice performing team, with whom she will

tour the world for four years.

For more information, call race director Bob Gardner at 985-8848 or the Running Room at 684- 9771.

JULY 28, 29-Basketball B.C. is presenting the Heat in the Streets Three on Three Basketball Tour- nam at Kitsilano Beach. A wide range of categories is of- fered. For more information, con- tact Nadine at 737-3032.

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AUG. 5-The Vancouver Interna- tional Triathion will see a showdown between world-ranked Californians Mark Allen and Dave Scott. The VIT begins 8 a.m. at English Bay and includes up to 2,000 athletes competing in the 1.5-kin swim, 38-kim cycle, 1-km run course,

SPORTSLINE RUNS every Wed- nesday as space permits, Hf you are planning an event, submit details bs preceding Friday to the North Shore News, 1139 f onsdile Ave. No Van. V7M 2H.

Softball ' girls victorious

TWO NORTH Vancouver Soft- ball Association girls teams were victorious at the Provincial Championship finals recendy.

In the Bantam division (under 14), the Cavaliers, coached by lan Wragee and Neil Henderson, and the Squirt division (under 12) Time Out Sports, coached by Col- in Atkinson and Gord Pepe, both went undefeated with 7 and 0 re- cords.