2024-25 British and Irish figure skating

[FlossieH]

I'm pleased to see Freddie. I had been wondering where he was.

The competition should be really good experience for Jack Donovan, even if he is the only one competing in his category.

Does anyone know anything about Paige Devaney? I don't think I've come across her before.

 

[CaroLiza_fan]

Does anyone know anything about Paige Devaney? I don't think I've come across her before.

Just did a search, and Paige appears to belong to the Chelmsford Riverside club. Here's a story about her from 2018 on the club's website, including a picture of her wearing a VERY pink with white polka dots dress:

https://www.crisc.co.uk/post/coventry-ijs-open-a-big-well-done-to-paige-devaney

Here's her Rink Results paige (sorry, couldn't resist!):

https://www.rinkresults.com/skater?skater_id=28069

Looks like this could well be Paige's first Junior level competition. She only moved into Advanced Novices just over a year ago!

On the subject of Advanced Novices, Paige has a team-mate competing at that level in Dordrecht. Elizabeth DOHNAL has been competing at a variety of Novice levels over the past few years, as shown on her Rink Results page:

https://www.rinkresults.com/skater?skater_id=40577

Last season, she won the National 5 (i.e. Intermediate Novice) Ladies competitions at the Robin Hood Trophy and Tayside Trophy. Although not on that table, later in the season she won the Basic Novice Ladies competition at the Dornbirner Eis Trophy in Austria.

Here is a picture of Elizabeth in Dornbirn with her trophy:

https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=904202725038493&set=a.472875768171193

Just to complete the entries, there is also a British girl competing in Basic Novice Ladies. Now, she must only have changed club a few months ago, because she was representing the Guildford club when she won National 5 (i.e. Intermediate Novice) Ladies at the Oxford Open in June 2023, and National 4 (i.e. Basic Novice) Ladies at the Guildford Open in January 2024; but was representing the Cardiff club when she finished 4th in Basic Novices at Nationals in May 2024.

Hope this helps

All the best to all of the British skaters going to Dordrecht!

CaroLiza_fan

 

[FlossieH]

Congratulations to Alice Smith on gaining the CTES for junior worlds at the JGP Ankara. She is currently our only female singles skater with the CTES for junior worlds.

 

[hellsbellsmichelle]

Technical minimums -pairs (GBR)

There has been a huge jump in these, particularly for senior Worlds.

Worlds (88)
Anastasia Vaipan Law/Luke Digby

Lydia Smart and Harry Mattick would have needed to regain their SP score under the old system anyway.

Euros (75)
Anastasia Vaipan-Law/Luke Digby

Lydia and Harry do not have the new CTES for Euros, although they did have the minimums under the old system. They are currently 0.77 points below the CTES, which is tantalisingly close (and probably very frustrating!).

Junior Worlds (63)
No-one

All of our Junior pairs are new this season, with Davison/Caller having split and Lucy Hay retiring. Hopefully at least one pair will be able to get the minimums.

 

[Weetos]

Arina Vorobeva and Lloyd Thomson will make their JGP debuts today, good luck to them I hope they enjoy it!

I am looking forward to seeing Ash and Atl kick off their season proper tomorrow.

 

[Weetos]

October Qualifier starts today, here's the link for the schedule and results
https://bisresults.co.uk/fsm/2410qual/
I'm assuming it will be livestreamed on youtube! Good luck to everyone taking part.

Of note there is a new AN pairs team making their competitive debut - Isla Shenton and Joel Kirby. It's always lovely to have more pairs teams competing!

 

[CaroLiza_fan]

October Qualifier starts today, here's the link for the schedule and results
https://bisresults.co.uk/fsm/2410qual/
I'm assuming it will be livestreamed on youtube! Good luck to everyone taking part.

Bit late to the party, but thank you for the heads up.

Do you know if they were having technical difficulties today? Because there are no scores up yet, and today's stream on the YouTube channel is still saying "upcoming".

Of note there is a new AN pairs team making their competitive debut - Isla Shenton and Joel Kirby. It's always lovely to have more pairs teams competing!

Not only that, Isla is actually doing the double this week - she is also entered in Advanced Novice Ladies! But, fortunately, not on the same days. It's Pairs today and tomorrow, and then Singles on Wednesday and Thursday.

Good to see that there are three skaters from the Dundonald club competing: Madison Moore in Advanced Novices; one girl in the U-10 National 1 category; and one girl in the U-9 Beginner category.

ALL THE BEST EVERYBODY!!!

CaroLiza_fan

 

[denise3lz]

Is Vorobeva Russian ?
She skated her FS to Russian singer. (and it was good piece IMO)

 

[FlossieH]

October Qualifier starts today, here's the link for the schedule and results
https://bisresults.co.uk/fsm/2410qual/
I'm assuming it will be livestreamed on youtube! Good luck to everyone taking part.

Of note there is a new AN pairs team making their competitive debut - Isla Shenton and Joel Kirby. It's always lovely to have more pairs teams competing!

Wasn't Joel Kirby with someone else last year?

Also, I can't seem to get any of the results from today?

 

[Weetos]

Is Vorobeva Russian ?
She skated her FS to Russian singer. (and it was good piece IMO)

Yes, she moved to the UK in June 2023, according to instagram

Wasn't Joel Kirby with someone else last year?

Also, I can't seem to get any of the results from today?

He was the AN champion last year with Jessica Hennessy. It seems he and Isla have been skating together about 4 months?

Sadly it seems the stream was never started and the results haven't updated either, not sure what has happened. I would like to at least see the scores!

Here's some clips of them skating together in the meantime:

 

[CaroLiza_fan]

Right. The comment I wrote last night didn't get posted, but with a bit of jiggery pokery, it is now up.

Is Vorobeva Russian ?
She skated her FS to Russian singer. (and it was good piece IMO)

EDIT: Apologies, but I was looking at the social media profiles of a different Arina Vorobeva. Our Arina is from Moscow, not Karelia. But, here is what I wrote originally:

She is from Karelia, the region to the north of St. Petersburg that is divided between Finland and Russia.

I am most familiar with Karelia because there are quite a few famous racing circuits in the region:

• Imatra (which was for a long time the host of the Finnish MotoGP, and which currently hosts a round of the International Road Racing Championship).
• The Kymi Ring (which was due to host the revived Finnish MotoGP, but COVID and then security concerns due to the war put paid to that).
• Igora Drive (which the Russian Formula 1 Grand Prix was due to move to last season but, again, the war put paid to that).

Anyway, back to figure skating.

Arina VOROBEVA is from Petrozavodsk, the capital of the Russian part of Karelia. And believe it or not, she is not the only skater from the city that has represented Great Britain. Ice Dancer Katarina DELCAMP (who briefly partnered Billy WILSON-FRENCH before he moved off to Canada) and her twin brother Dakota were born there. They were in an orphanage, and were adopted by an American family when they were 5 months old.

Here is an adorable video of the DelCamp twins on the ice when they were 4 years old:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HufDRW_1SKA

Katarina hasn't changed a bit, has she?

Other figure skaters from Karelia include Iida KARHUNEN (FIN), Juho PIRINEN (FIN), and Artem LEZHEEV (RUS).

Hope this helps

CaroLiza_fan​

Sorry for the confusion.

CaroLiza_fan

 

[Weetos]

She states on her Instagram that she was born and brought up in Moscow, is it her parents that are from there?

 

[CaroLiza_fan]

She states on her Instagram that she was born and brought up in Moscow, is it her parents that are from there?

It was the header on her Instagram and vKontakte profiles that I got it from. Unless I was looking at another girl with the same name. (I nearly got caught out that way a few days ago when making out the Fan Fest for Vasilisa Bogomolova).

Yes, I was. I just re-did the search with the word "skate" in inverted commas this time, and I got a different Instagram profile. And that one is our Arina.



Thank you for speaking up, and sorry for the confusion I caused.

Well, at least I found out a nice story while doing the research, and was able to tell it!

CaroLiza_fan

 

[Weetos]

Haha no worries, I'm not sure I am entirely proud of my Instagram sleuthing!

Oh, I only just realised that in addition to having a great showing at his first ever JGP with some really nice comments from Ted, Lloyd Thomson has got his minimums for worlds! Fantastic. There are now I think 3 junior eligible men with minimums (Lloyd, Tao, and Arin Yorke) so that will add some more excitement to nationals.

I also noticed that Tao MacRae is competing in the October Qualifier in the senior category. I wonder if he will do both.

The results page seems to be updated finally.

 

[Ruthypegs]

Haha no worries, I'm not sure I am entirely proud of my Instagram sleuthing!

Oh, I only just realised that in addition to having a great showing at his first ever JGP with some really nice comments from Ted, Lloyd Thomson has got his minimums for worlds! Fantastic. There are now I think 3 junior eligible men with minimums (Lloyd, Tao, and Arin Yorke) so that will add some more excitement to nationals.

I also noticed that Tao MacRae is competing in the October Qualifier in the senior category. I wonder if he will do both.

The results page seems to be updated finally.

Yesterday, someone at my rink (Sheffield) was complimenting Lloyd's skating at Ljubjana - so I've just watched the two JGP skates - what a talented skater he is. Look forward to seeing him at Nationals.

It seems like such an exciting time for British skating currently - so many great skaters and teams in juniors and seniors.

 

[Weetos]

I've only just remembered that Ed's top 10 finish at JW last year means we have two spots for the men this year. Great news as another one just got his minimums - Edward Solovyov got his at Tayside Trophy today! I think that makes four? Lloyd won the event and from the protocols it looks like he had his best attempt yet at the 3A. Ana and Luke came second in the pairs event behind Conti/Macii, and Rebecca and Kyle had a good outing in the junior pairs. (Also, Corey Circelli placed second in the senior men, he is on my list of skaters born in the UK I'm claiming as an honorary Brit haha).

Elsewhere Zara and Alex were competing in the junior event at Budapest and improved their score - they are inching closer to minimums every time they go out.

Also congrats to Rio Nakata for a great win at JGP Wuxi, if you ever get tired of representing Japan I'm sure the door is open...

 

[Ruthypegs]

Looks like Ana and Luke might get a second Grand Prix assignment, as Plazas and Fernandez have withdrawn from their two events (due to injury, sadly). Ana and Luke are currently top of the alternates list. https://www.isu.org/docman-document...files-64/34305-gp-alternate-list-2024-25/file

 

[slider11]

I'm wondering if Jean-Luc Baker may consider a new British partnership if Kaitlin Hawayek is retiring. They both suffered from injuries but it seems that Kaitlin's heart was not in it anymore for personal/mental health reasons. I know he's not a youngster but with his British parentage, perhaps there would be a petite Brit woman that would be a good match. I know Fear and Gibson have the first spot locked but maybe there's room for someone with calibre of Jean-Luc.

 

[Weetos]

I'm wondering if Jean-Luc Baker may consider a new British partnership if Kaitlin Hawayek is retiring. They both suffered from injuries but it seems that Kaitlin's heart was not in it anymore for personal/mental health reasons. I know he's not a youngster but with his British parentage, perhaps there would be a petite Brit woman that would be a good match. I know Fear and Gibson have the first spot locked but maybe there's room for someone with calibre of Jean-Luc.

....
....he is dating Olivia Smart...

 

[Ruthypegs]

I'm wondering if Jean-Luc Baker may consider a new British partnership if Kaitlin Hawayek is retiring. They both suffered from injuries but it seems that Kaitlin's heart was not in it anymore for personal/mental health reasons. I know he's not a youngster but with his British parentage, perhaps there would be a petite Brit woman that would be a good match. I know Fear and Gibson have the first spot locked but maybe there's room for someone with calibre of Jean-Luc.

I'd love to see Jean-Luc continuing competitive figure skating. Is Kaitlin definitely retiring? He and Kaitlin are/were one of my favourite teams, but IMHO, he's one of the very best male ice dancers. It would be brilliant for him to skate for the UK, but I'd be happy to see him skating for any country.

@Weetos - I didn't know he was dating Olivia Smart - she comes from Sheffield, so maybe when she's visiting family, I'll spot him/them round town sometime - that would be cool!