For five young Yukon athletes, this weekend's Canada Winter Games test event will provide a completely new and unique experience.

With more than 80 pre-novice and novice figure skaters from Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta, B.C., N.W.T. and Yukon, all colliding at the Canada Games Centre in Whitehorse, the competition promises to be fierce.

But it's not the size of the competition, or the calibre of skaters they'll be up against, that will be different for the local athletes they travel to Outside competitions in Western Canada on a regular basis.

What they're not used to is skating competitively in front of a hometown crowd.

While the Arctic Edge Skating Club puts on an annual skating carnival, and of course the Yukon championships, it's been a long time since Whitehorse has hosted a figure skating event of this calibre if ever. The competition witnessed at the 2000 Arctic Winter Games just scratched the surface.

This weekend, for the first time in their young skating careers, Kevin Caron, Teneil Caron, Amelia Austin, Chantal Emond and Katie Blaker will be able to perform at a major event in front of their friends and family and show all the local residents exactly what they can do.

That would probably make most of us a little nervous, but so far, the Yukoners are keeping their cool.

'I'm excited,' insisted Kevin, who is the lone male skater representing the territory. 'It's going to be fun.'

'I'm feeling confident,' agreed Emond, one of four pre-novice ladies skaters representing the territory. 'You have to feel confident about yourself going into any competition in any sport.

'Of course, I always have a bit of a nervous feeling as well. I just want to try and impress everyone at home, because they don't really know what you can do.'

Most of the local skaters were out on the ice with their coaches Thursday afternoon, making last minute adjustments and perfecting their programs. Blaker has been training separately in Vancouver. She arrived home Thursday and will practice today.

National coach Karen Magnussen, who has been working with Kevin, Teneil and Austin for the past coupe of seasons, made her second trip to the North earlier this week, in order to help prepare her athletes for the competition.

'I think they've improved so much,' said Magnussen, who last saw the three of them at Summer Skate in Burnaby, Aug. 17-20. 'We had a fabulous summer of training, a great Summer Skate. Now is when you start seeing the benefits of that hard work.'

Kevin, who is coming off an incredibly successful year where he finished fifth overall at the western Canadian championships and 11th at the junior nationals, said it's important to him that Magnussen was able to make it this week.

'I don't have a coach up here, so it's good to see her before the competition, make sure all my jumps are smooth.'

It's safe to say so far, all of his jumps are looking just fine. After six weeks of off-season training and a second-place overall finish at Summer Skate, Caron is comfortably pulling off triple loops and working on another triple jump.

'All summer I've been working on those, as well as getting my double axel really consistent, which it is now.'

While he's expected to do very well at this competition, Kevin insisted he just wants to go out there and have fun. The most important thing, he said, it finding out what he needs to work on for the future, including the Canada Games.

'I just want to get my spins upper-level and my footwork, and see what jumps I can land.'

Skating in a very tough pre-novice ladies category which includes 31 competitors, Emond, who is coached by Arctic Edge's Trish Pettitt, agreed she's just aiming to do her best and 'not give up.'

'I just want to go out there and do what I've been practicing everyday. Also, I want to accomplish jumps I haven't done yet in competition. I've been working on the double lutz for a while.

'For the girl's, it's going to be tough,' Emond added. 'You have to have a clean axel to be in the top and no one (competing for Yukon) has a clean one yet. Kevin, I hope he's in the top because he deserves to be. He has so much potential.'

Magnussen said all of Kevin's success from last year has been building up to this and now he can draw on all of his experience when he hits the ice at the Games Centre this weekend.

But she cautioned, this is just the beginning of the season. More than anything, the coach said, everyone's main goal should just be to raise their performance level.

'Each one of them has their strengths and weaknesses. We sat down and talked about things, about the strategy I think they should use, and for each one that's different.

'The most important thing is making sure you've improved since Summer Skate. It's not just landing a jump, it's about that performance. You have to make sure you don't get caught up in that. It's very hard.'

Once this weekend's competition is over, added Magnussen, she'll sit down with her skaters and revisit their latest performances, setting new goals for the rest of the season. You have to keep moving forward, she said.

'(The Yukon skaters) don't have up here a lot of things that other clubs do. A lot of the office programs they don't have as easily at their finger tips. And they're still competing at the level they are. I think that's fantastic.

'Yukoners can be very proud of these kids and how hard they're working.'

This weekend's competition, which also includes ice dance, will take place on the Olympic ice surface, which could be a slight advantage for the Yukon skaters.

They've been training on the larger surface regularly for the past year, Kevin point out, while many of the visiting skaters don't get that opportunity in their communities.

'Also, the air up here is a lot thinner, so some of the skaters might have a hard time with that.'

So far, said Emond, the Games Centre has received rave reviews from the guest figure skaters, seven of whom are staying at her house.

'I took them on a tour when they first got here, and they were like, Oh my gosh, it's amazing.'

'I think a lot of people will be pretty impressed with what Whitehorse has. They think we live in Igloos.'

About 30 officials from B.C. Alberta, Saskatchewan and N.W.T. have also been flown in for the competition.

Today is a practice day for all teams. Saturday's events get underway at 10 a.m. and run until about 9 p.m. The medal presentations for pre-novice dance and novice dance will take place at 9:20 Saturday night.

On Sunday, the competition starts at 8 a.m. and runs until about 5:30 p.m. The medal presentations for the remaining categories will take place at 5:35 Sunday evening.