Liberty Championships July 15 -18, 2009, Aston, PA

http://www.libertyskating.org/LibertyNews.html#top

Does anyone know of any top skaters who will try out their new programs here?

Also which is the closest hotel to the Rink?

Joesitz said:

http://www.libertyskating.org/LibertyNews.html#top

Does anyone know of any top skaters who will try out their new programs here?

Also which is the closest hotel to the Rink?

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Kimmie said she'd most likely to compete BUT ...... she is recovering from tendonitis and boot issues. She said she's getting through it.

Tendonitis can heal in about a week if you stop your activity immediately. I delayed by own healing because I didn't realize what was happening to my own knee. As far as I know, to feel full strength again will take about four weeks. The earlier you treat it, the better (which is why I'm skeptical about Rafael Nadal and his knees from his lengthy tendonitis.) Heck, my knee buckled a few times if it's bent for too long..... I almost rolled down the stairs in the dark when I got up to leave a ballet performance I attended.

I was wondering too who might compete. I looked at the website for the 2008 results to see who competed then. It seems that in Ladies the heavy hitters were Flatt, Czisny, Gilles, Bereswill and Wagner. The Men had Bradley, Chan, Abbott, Oi and Shaun Rogers.

Wonder if there will be elite skaters such as these again?

Probably. And the FL pairs often skate at Liberty, particularly Evora/Ladwig.

There's no dance.

Hotels are not particularly close to the rink.

I use Google Maps to find them.

http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&tab=wl

Click on Show Search Options.

Pick Businesses from the drop down.

And put Hotel Aston PA in the search box and you get a list.

Another way to pick a hotel is from the IceWorks site:

http://www.iceworks.net/directory/browse-92-1-0-hotels-lodging.php

It lists all the hotels and the distance of each one from the rink. Many fans stay at the Holiday Inn Select Wilmington, which is only 3.5 miles from the rink.

This is a big monitoring event for the single skaters, so you'll usually see those that:

a. have been chosen for an international event and are not in the A envelope

or

b. are in the international selection pool and not in the A envelope

Skaters that fall into a or b are required to attend one of the monitored events, so that's why you see such elite skaters at Liberty (and Skate Detroit). If Kimmie can't make this event, there are a few others, but this would be the most local for her.

The Indy Challenge event is the bigger monitoring event for pairs and Lake Placid Ice Dance Championships for the dance teams.

Still nothing on who's competing? Strange, since the competition starting date is so close! I'm guessing we're not going to see as many 'stars' as last year; the 'Olympic' year programs seem to take a little longer to tweak... Rachael Flatt has already announced that she won't be doing Liberty (well, indirectly at least, she said she wanted to do a summer competition no earlier than august). Any confirmation on Kimmie?

No confirmation from Kimmie either.

chuckm said:

No confirmation from Kimmie either.

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From a reply she made to someone else (on Twitter) who asked the question, it's not likely that she will be there. She's apparently recovering from some kind of knee injury.

@luckysnake50 [snip] I don't think so. i wasn't really sure if i was [going to compete at Liberty] for sure, but my knee [injury] messed me up

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That's such a shame about Kimmie. We were really looking forward to seeing her there. We're still planning on attending the Friday and Saturday parts of the competition.

Trewyn said:

Still nothing on who's competing? Strange, since the competition starting date is so close! I'm guessing we're not going to see as many 'stars' as last year; the 'Olympic' year programs seem to take a little longer to tweak... Rachael Flatt has already announced that she won't be doing Liberty (well, indirectly at least, she said she wanted to do a summer competition no earlier than august). Any confirmation on Kimmie?

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From her Twitter page, Rachael just returned (as of July 4th) to Colorado Springs from a couple of weeks in Toronto working with Nichol, so not a surprise that she is passing on Liberty this year.

Flatt usually competes in some summer comps in Colorado, including the Colorado Championships in the Denver area in early August. So, I suspect that will be one of the events she is at.

Any confirmed skaters from Colorado going to be at Liberty this year?

The buzz was that the Colorado skaters wouldn't be going en masse to Liberty this year.

chuckm, Do you know whether Ryan Bradley will be going?

is that the make or break deal for you to decide if you are gonna go, D???

Nigel said:

Flatt usually competes in some summer comps in Colorado, including the Colorado Championships in the Denver area in early August. So, I suspect that will be one of the events she is at.

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According to her official site, Rachael Flatt will debut her new programs at the Colorado Championships, August 5-8, 2009 in Arvada, Colorado.

I'm told that Patrick Chan registered for Liberty again this year, but I don't know if he will actually compete... have to wait and see if he shows.

Senior Men so far that I've heard are planning to compete (from 2009 Nationals) at Liberty this year include: Stephen Carriere (S9), Tommy Steenberg (S10), Shaun Rogers (S12), Douglas Razzano (S14), Jonathan Cassar (S16), and new seniors Ross Miner (J1), Keegan Messing (J2), and Armin Mahbanoozadeh (J6).

Senior Ladies: Ashley Wagner (S4), Kristine Musademba (S11), Joelle Forte (S12), and new senior Kristiene Gong (J4).

Senior Pairs: Evora/Ladwig (S4) and junior champs Tanovich/Chau (I think).

Junior Pairs: H. Denney/Raad (N2), Gibbons/Harris (N3) and the new team of Felicia Zhang/Taylor Toth (JGP age-eligible).

The above should be considered UNOFFICIAL hearsay information. The Liberty program book should be available by late Tuesday and hopefully more of the registered skaters will be known then. However, please be aware that every year a good number of the registered skaters that are listed in the program book end up not showing and ditto sometimes even for the skaters listed in the starting orders posted at the rink on the day of competition! In any case, it should be a fun competition regardless of who does or doesn't show up!

Thanks so much for all the info!

Thanks for the info! We intend to be there on Friday and Saturday!

Here's a Liberty preview article (it mentions Ryan Bradley and Alexe Gilles among the seniors scheduled to compete): http://web.icenetwork.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20090714&content_id=5872070&vkey=ice_news

My friend didn't see a program book to buy at the rink late afternoon on Tuesday but did take the time to copy down the following start orders for Wednesday that were posted at the rink (it was kind of dark and hard to read some names on the sheets -- name typos and/or other mistakes are very possible! I've added 2009 U.S. Nationals Jr./Nov. results in parentheses below.).

JUNIOR MEN SP starting order (18 listed; regions or countries added):
L Ting (NA), J Gorecki (EGL), A Laboy (PUR), J Berman (NA), D O'Shea (J10; UGL), A Zahradnicek (SA), W Michael (CP), P M Dion (J12; NE), A Aiken (J7; SA), S Dyer (SA), S Evans (N2; SW), M Chau (J9; SA), S Rabbitt (SWP), L Evans (GBR), P Schatz (SA), C Darling (SW), C Fernandes (N7; NE), C Grafton (N8; NE).

JUNIOR LADIES SP A:
Hansen, DeFelice, Christopher, F Zhang, Raver, Gunderson-Smith, A Hamui (MEX), Hecht, Kononenko, Pipkin, Doherty, K Baga (N1), L Siraj, Gutterman.

JUNIOR LADIES SP B:
Gueli, M Daniels, Wyckoff (J5), Murtaugh, Narita, R Hamui (MEX), Clear, M Meyer, Bibbs, Nishimoto, McInnis, A Bernstein, Erikson.

JUNIOR LADIES SP C:
Stockunas, Goswell (AUS), Veloso, Tugolukova, Kubiak, Dunne, F. Sheikh, Robbins (GBR), Komes, Barbour, A Finn, Shaughnessy, Y Siraj (N5), Frost.

JUNIOR LADIES SP D:
McCarthey, Hsu, Vicks, Trimilove, Wu, McDonald, Cusack, Rudderham (N8), Fitzgerald, Barama, Shultes, Przeslawski, Koehler.

NOVICE LADIES SP A:
Chr. Zhang, Fragedakis, Orenstein, Hu, Yasenka, Yan, Timlen, C Shaw, Graham, Gaughan, Tanovich, Molina, Galonski, J Calalang.

NOVICE LADIES SP B:
Rollins, Mateya, Seagers, Rahman, Jardine, Bruggemeier, H Smith, L Seitz, C Taylor, Kalina, Hollander, Walton, Nickerson.

NOVICE LADIES SP C:
Rochester, Erd, Eisen, Henricks, Albright, Ngo, Fargo, Foley, Fanelle, Hoover, Randolph, Rajic.

NOVICE LADIES SP D:
Eng, Miao, Crawford, Thong, Nemastil, Maizlish, Judge, Thierwechter, Voyce(?), Heinbach, Knoop, Mahoney, Munger.

NOVICE LADIES SP E:
Sterbenz, Guillot, Bonenfant, N Miller, Gilbert, Hamill, L Dinh (N6), H-J Miller, Moskowitz, Sowa, Gonzalez-Sigler.

INTERMEDIATE MEN SP:
Huertas, Lung, J Newberry, Jalovic(?), Melnyk, Takayama, Strupinski, West, van Deventer, Manella, G Newberry, Marineau, Gunderson-Smith, Gleisberg, M Johnson, Ma, Schetelich, Jerothe, Rossi.

That's all I have for now. I will type out and post all the Senior level and Pairs entries from the program book (or starting orders, if available) when I get a chance.

Thanks, Sylvia!

FYI, I've been tweeting brief results highlights and plan to continue through Saturday: http://twitter.com/SylviaUnseen