New Regina duo claims gold at Skate Canada event

Two figure skaters who competed in the 2025-26 Skate Canada Challenge in Calgary last weekend brought medals back to Regina, winning gold in their division.

Merging their talents from Canada and Japan, Tristan Taylor and Miyu Yunoki finished first in the Senior Pairs category with a total of 163.34 points. Eliana Secunda and Thierry Ferland, representing Quebec, finished second with 145.20 points.

“We had some injuries going into the first couple of weeks of training for this [competition], but overcoming that and then coming out and winning was really special for us,” said Taylor, referring to the pair’s prior season which was spent competing in Japan.

Taylor and Yunoki were first partnered back in 2024 through Derek Meekins, a national and international figure skating coach.

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After trying out at a training centre in Colorado Springs, Colo., Meekins said it was obvious they would make a great duo.

“To be honest, they had a lot of great qualities kind of right away. Just a really similar timing, similar way of pacing their skills, attached to their elements and so those things were all really helpful,” Meekins explained.

Because this was only the pair’s third “real competition,” Meekins said it was rewarding to see them achieve gold.

“The fact that they’re already able to deliver something worthy of a win shows that they are a serious team,” said Meekins.

“They really want to go after some big results as we move into the next sort of quad and the second half of the season even. We’ve known they have the potential. I think to get a score and win like that this quickly, really shows that they’re on the right track.”

However, with it still being early in their career, he is hopeful they can accomplish more.

“There’s a lot of good things, but I do think there are still some places where they can upgrade their content,” he said. “I think probably the biggest one is getting the triple twist in the program.”

Taylor also shared his optimism for the current and future seasons to come.

“We’re just starting to get into that flow of just knowing where each other are at all times and just feeling comfortable with each other on the ice all the time,” he expressed. “It’s more just how long you’ve been skating together and how that builds up.”

The pair hopes to take their talent to the international stage with a goal of competing at the world championships, and maybe one day at the Olympics.

“Next year our goal is going to Four Continents [Figure Skating Championships] and the World Championships,” Yunoki added.