For figure skater Liam Dougherty, it's like breaking up with a long-term girlfriend.

Dougherty and ice dance partner Melissa Piperno, who were the 2003 junior national champions, have decided to go their separate ways.

'It never can be amicable,' admitted the 19-year-old, who is an associate member of the Whitehorse Figure Skating Club, in an interview Thursday. 'It's like any relationship. There's always going to be someone who feels rejected. But I thought we ended a bad situation in the best way.

'I don't hate her. We don't hate each other. We split up it's a business thing.'

Dougherty said it was his decision to end the partnership, after skating with Piperno for five years.

'I felt that I was being held back,' he said. 'I was starting to not improve as much as I thought I could improve. I wasn't happy. I felt that I just wasn't going in the direction I thought I was going to go.'

Dougherty said Piperno wasn't too surprised by his decision, something that had been discussed more than once in the past couple of years even during their reign as champions.

'The past two years on paper looked great,' he said. 'But even those past years it was tough. Even at that point (the championship) I felt like it was kind of reaching a limit. But I'm glad we skated the last year, because we had great experiences.'

Now, Dougherty and his coach are working hard to find someone else to share great experiences with. The former Whitehorse resident said he's had a few women tryout, but there hasn't been anything very promising yet. He's got a few more to try when he returns to Montreal next week, but admits their running out of options.

'It's a small skating world, so you find out quickly who's available and who's not,' he said. 'You run out of options fairly quickly.

'There's just no one right now that I would feel very excited about.'

Dougherty said he's not sure, but he believes Piperno may have found a new partner this past weekend, something he said feels a little weird right now.

'People don't understand how intense five years of skating are,' he explained. 'It's strange to not be skating with her anymore.'

The fact the two skaters still share the same coach, Julie Marcotte, doesn't really make things easier. But Dougherty said Piperno may leave the club to skate with her new partner under a different coach. He has no plans to leave Marcotte, who he said fully supported his decision to move on.

'She left it up to me,' he said. 'She just made sure I knew all the options out there and how difficult it would be. But yeah, she definitely backed my decision and supported me 100 per cent.'

The separation could mean Dougherty will have to take the next year off of competitive skating, since he may not find a new partner in time.

'Ideally, I'd like to skate this year with somebody, but it's looking like it probably won't happen,' he admitted. 'It's not the best situation to sit out a year. I'd rather be skating, but if I use that year to my advantage it shouldn't really hurt me.'

Dougherty and Piperno were supposed to skate their last time together at Saturday's Whitehorse Figure Skating Club spring carnival, These Skates are Made for Rockin'. Piperno pulled out at the last minute, but Dougherty decided to return to his old home anyway a place he left seven years ago and hasn't been back to in five years.

'Honestly I am pretty excited,' he smiled. 'I have really missed the Yukon in so many ways. I love Montreal, it's a great place, but it's not the same. Nature is not the same nature. Just to get a glimpse of that, it will definitely do me some good.'

While he won't be skating in the carnival anymore because he doesn't have a partner, Dougherty has spent time this week working with the young skaters at the club, and will be putting on a seminar Saturday.

'I'm just partnering dances, because nobody ever gets to skate with a partner in Whitehorse,' he said. 'And I'm working on bits and pieces here and there, but mostly with dances.

'A lot of people think dance is boring I thought so too but I'm going to show them it can be fun.'

Dougherty said he never thought he'd end up in ice dance when he was younger, but when he left to train in Montreal, the coaching staff said he would be a better dancer because his jumps weren't strong enough for singles.

'After I started, I never thought twice about it, so I guess I enjoyed it from the beginning,' he said. 'I've never regretted switching over from singles.

'There are more stories you can tell (in dance). If you're doing it with two people you can have a chemistry or relationship between them that is powerful. When you have the bad times, you have the bad times, but when you have the good times you have somebody to share it with.'

Dougherty said the reality in the Yukon is you have to leave eventually, if you want to pursue competitive skating, but it's a great place to start out.

Asked what advice he had for the young skaters in the territory, Dougherty said he keeps it limited, at least for now.

'If I become Olympic champion, then I can start giving advice,' he laughed.

The one thing he did stress is a good work ethic.

'Hard work, but that's it,' he said. 'There's nothing else, except maybe a little bit of luck.'

The former national champion said he knows people who have tons of talent but don't do anything with it, because they don't put in the hard work talent can only take you so far.

Dougherty also recognizes, perhaps better than most, that figure skating can be a frustrating sport especially when it comes to recognition by judges.

'In skating you can have the best day and everybody thinks you're great,' he said. 'But you can still get screwed. That's the hardest thing. After a while you start to lose your positive outlook.'

Dougherty said the most important thing is to just 'keep plotting along.

'The first three years, we had a couple tough years where we got a little bit shafted,' he said. 'But we just kept going and worked harder. We decided, let's make sure they can not deny us what we deserve. We have to make it so they have no choice.'

'What my coach always tells me is it's important to just be skating for yourself.'

Which is exactly why Dougherty is setting his own goals and making his own plans.

'The only goal that's worthwhile is world and Olympic champion,' he stated. 'That's what I want. Who knows if I'll get it or what will happen along the way. All I really want is to go as far as I can go.'

The skater said some people may consider his goal 'lofty', but he doesn't see it that way at all.

'Why can't it be me?' he reasoned. 'Why does it have to be someone else? There's not just this guy who's destiny is to win the Olympics. So why can't it be me?'