Safety car period in the F1 race is just ending, so I am taking the opportunity to put this placeholder up at the start of the Chicks B Group 1 Warm-Up rather than at the end of it.
I love the way they are presenting the skaters in the middle of the ice! The only problem is that, with it being dark when they are getting into position, the wee girls are not judging the spacing very well. Consquently, there is plenty of space between the first few skaters, and then after that they are practically on top of each other, with barely enough room to swing their arms when they are taking their bows.
Well, Alina will definitely be easy to spot. Not just because I recognise the Amathusia club jacket, but because she is by some distance the tallest skater in the group. (She has really shot up in the past year! She was tiny when I last saw her last May).
Shortly after the Warm-Up started, we saw her cross the shot in the foreground, and then saw her cross back again in the background. When she was in the background, it looked like she was doing the backstroke with her arms. She then crossed again in the foreground, and it looked like she was going to stop in the middle of the shot and do something, but she changed her mind and carried on out of shot.
When she came back into shot, she did stop. And she did a beautiful combination spin. She then started heading aback where she came from, but then did a u-turn, and circled around. There was one point when she was heading backwards towards the camera that I thought her blades were going to give way and she would do the splits, but she recovered, and headed out of shot.
When the clock said there was 2m 15s to go, Alina came back into shot, and circled around, but had to swerve to avoid a little Latvian girl who was doing a spin right in her path (it was actually the girl who would be skating directly before her). But, she kept up the speed until she went out of shot.
She then briefly came back into shot a couple of times, and the second time attempted to do a jump, but she didn't really have enough space because two skaters went by her. So, it didn't work out well. When she came back into shot, she came backwards towards the camera, giving us a very good view of the back of her jacket with "CYPRUS" written on it in big letters.
When the clock said there was 1m 20s to go, she nearly had a collision with the same little Latvian girl she had to swerve around earlier. This time, Alina was minding her own business and the Latvian girl came gliding along with her leg up against her face, blocking her view, and only spotted Alina at the last moment when she put her leg down. Alina then circled around, coming very close to the camera, and went out of shot.
When the clock said there was 1 minuteto go, she did a jump. It was alright. She went out of shot, and then came back in and had another go. And this one was a bit better. She then left the shot when the 1 minute warning was given... which was when the clock said 40s to go!
About 10s later, she briefly came back into shot doing part of her Step Sequence. But that was the last we saw of her.
Right, now Alina has a wait of about 25 minutes until it is her turn to skate.
CaroLiza_fan