Dutch Figure Skating 2021-2022

[ladyjane]

Open d'Andorra is a competition for Singles skaters and Ice Dance taking place from November 24-28th at the levels from Basic novice to Senior.

Some Dutch skaters are planning to attend there.

First of all in seniors the ID team of Chelsea Verhaegh and Sherim van Geffem is scheduled to compete there. There's 14 ID teams taking part (at the moment) including Lilah Fear and Lewis Gibson from GB and Katharina Müller and Tim Dieck from Germany. But there are also couples from Australia, New Zealand, Finland and Latvia. Could be quite interesting!

In juniors two Dutch women are taking part: Mikai van Ommeren and Roos van der Pas. I hope Mikai will be attending as she withdrew from an earlier competition, just two weeks ago.

Finally, there's a Dutch Basic novice girl taking part: Floor van der Pas. I wonder whether Roos (juniors) and Floor (basic novice) are sisters.

 

[CaroLiza_fan]

Finally, there's a Dutch Basic novice girl taking part: Floor van der Pas. I wonder whether Roos (juniors) and Floor (basic novice) are sisters.

They were both in Tallinn this week as well, so I would say it is quite probable that they are sisters.

Roos was 15th overall out of 17 in Juniors, while Floor was 7th out of 18 in the Basic Novice (2010 And Younger) competition.

CaroLiza_fan

 

[ladyjane]

Thank you so much @CaroLiza_fan ! I'm not good at following the 'kids' so to speak, so I didn't even notice that Floor was at Tallinn as well (I had reported on Roos). I'm so glad you did. X

 

[ladyjane]

Update Open d'Andorra: the sisters 'Van der Pas' (I'm presuming they are sisters) are no longer scheduled to compete. However, Chelsea and Sherim are still on the list in Senior Ice Dance, as is Mikai van Ommeren in Junior Women. Good luck to them!

 

[ladyjane]

In other news: Lindsay van Zundert has officially been nominated by the Dutch Skating Association to take part in the Olympic Games in Beijing. It would have been possible for Niki Wories to get that spot if she had assembled a certain minimum number of points twice in specific competitions. There is only one of those competitions left this season (i.e. Golden Spin), and she has not yet come close - even if she is on the rebound in the sense that her scores are on the rise.

Congratulations to Lindsay, who will be the first Figure Skater to represent The Netherlands at an Olympic Games, since 1976.

 

[Weathergal]

In other news: Lindsay van Zundert has officially been nominated by the Dutch Skating Association to take part in the Olympic Games in Beijing. It would have been possible for Niki Wories to get that spot if she had assembled a certain minimum number of points twice in specific competitions. There is only one of those competitions left this season (i.e. Golden Spin), and she has not yet come close - even if she is on the rebound in the sense that her scores are on the rise.

Congratulations to Lindsay, who will be the first Figure Skater to represent The Netherlands at an Olympic Games, since 1976.

And that was Dianne de Leeuw, who I remember skating against Dorothy Hamill, who made me a figure skating fan!

 

[sadya]

In other news: Lindsay van Zundert has officially been nominated by the Dutch Skating Association to take part in the Olympic Games in Beijing. It would have been possible for Niki Wories to get that spot if she had assembled a certain minimum number of points twice in specific competitions. There is only one of those competitions left this season (i.e. Golden Spin), and she has not yet come close - even if she is on the rebound in the sense that her scores are on the rise.

Congratulations to Lindsay, who will be the first Figure Skater to represent The Netherlands at an Olympic Games, since 1976.

Yes! Finally! I was just having my morning tea and this made my morning even better:

Kunstrijdster Van Zundert zeker van deelname aan Winterspelen - Nieuws.nl

UTRECHT (ANP) - De Brabantse kunstrijdster Lindsay van Zundert (16) is als eerste Nederlandse schaatser verzekerd van deelname aan de Olympische Spelen van Beijing (4-20 februari 2022). Sportkoepel NOC*NSF heeft de voordracht van schaatsbond KNSB goedgekeurd. De langebaanschaatsers en...

nieuws.nl

I did feel bad for Nikki Worries, I like both skaters. I hope the time will come when we can send more skaters to the Games.

 

[ladyjane]

Small report on Open d'Andorra
In the end the only Dutchies left were Chelsea Verhaegh and Sherim van Geffen in Ice Dance. Mikai van Ommeren sadly withdrew from the Junior women competition, although I haven't the faintest idea why. It's not the first time this season. I hope she's not injured or anything.

Chelsea and Sherim were 12th and last in the ID competition. Only 48.78 points for the RD, although the numbers 10 and 11 also only had scores in the 47's. In the FD they had 67.86 points, and the numbers 10 and 11 seperated themselves somewhat. The total score for Chelsea and Sherim was 116.64 points.

We'll see most of the Sr Dutch team in two weeks' time at Golden Spin!

 

[ladyjane]

Santa Claus Cup in Hungary, scheduled December 6th to 10th.

There is going to be a Dutch presence here (only in girls and women):

In basic novice: Floor van der Pas (37 competitors in total)
In advanced novice: Emilia Soloukhin and Angel Delavaque (57 Adv Novice skaters in total)
In juniors: Lois Libregts, Eline Seuren, Isabella Smit and Roos van der Pas (64 junior women in total)
No Dutch in seniors.

Looks like to be a big competition. Let's hope it doesn't get cancelled.

 

[sadya]

There is an actual Santa Claus Cup? Well, why not

 

[Winnie_20]

This is news, I guess.

KNSB Challenge Cup kunstrijden verhuist naar Tilburg

De KNSB Challenge Cup, het grootste kunstrij-evenement op Nederlandse bodem, verhuist van Den Haag naar Tilburg. Het IJssportcentrum aldaar is in elk geval de komende drie jaar het toneel van de Challenge Cup. De eerstvolgende editie is van 24 t/m 27 februari 2022, de wedstrijd wordt...

knsb.nl

Not sure I believe moving the CC away from The Hague is a good idea, but what do I know?

 

[ladyjane]

I was afraid of that happening as it took quite long for the location to be confirmed. I'm with you @Winnie_20. Perhaps the circumstances (financially, better software for the live stream and the scoring, etc.) are better? It certainly isn't better for the skaters and their teams as the travel time from Schiphol and some European skaters might even use Rotterdam-The Hague airport) is much longer. The travel time for me as a spectator too, but then that obviously isn't part of the discussion!

 

[ladyjane]

Golden Spin
Nika Osipova and Dmitry Epstein are no longer scheduled to compete. I don't know whether that's because of Dmitry still being hampered by the consequences of him suffering from covid before (which caused quite a bit of stamina problems earlier in the season) or if there's another reason. Nika seemed fine just a week ago (she coaches at the same rink where I train). I hope they both are okay.

 

[ladyjane]

Golden Spin update
Lindsay van Zundert will withdraw from Golden Spin as she was tested positive for Covid this weekend and is currently in quarantaine. According to an article on the Dutch Skating website her complaints are mild.

 

[ladyjane]

Golden Spin update.
Besides Osipova/Epstein, Danilova/Tsiba have also withdrawn. As yet no reason given. No Dutch pairs anymore.
Niki Wories and both Ice Dance couples are still scheduled to compete.

 

[gordana]

Well, it seems Golden Spin was supposed as a selection competition for Euros, since Dutch Nationals are often held after. Since Osipova Epstein withdrew eventually because of health reasons, Danilova Tsiba don't have internal competitors anymore and this competition isn't very necessary for their personal competitive schedule. While in ice dance it is not still very obvious.
Please correct me if I am wrong.

 

[ladyjane]

Well, it seems Golden Spin was supposed as a selection competition for Euros, since Dutch Nationals are often held after. Since Osipova Epstein withdrew eventually because of health reasons, Danilova Tsiba don't have internal competitors anymore and this competition isn't very necessary for their personal competitive schedule. While in ice dance it is not still very obvious.
Please correct me if I am wrong.

You're absolutely right @gordana but I had hoped to see them again, if only because it really will be a rather good competition with quite a few pairs. Their last 'real' competition was at Nebelhorn (the NRW trophy only counted as a selection criterion for Euros and there were only two Dutch pairs participating). It just worried me because I had only a day before before heard that 'the 'first Dutch woman to go to the OG in 46 years' had to withdraw due to Covid, and Osipova/Epstein are also still struggling with the after effects of a bout of Covid. Niki is still going so far, and so are the two ID teams (which indeed are quite close together in level). And I will still enjoy watching all the other pairs there of course!

 

[ladyjane]

Updates

Santa Claus Cup
Junior women: out of 42 participants Roos van der Pas was 28th and Lois Libregts was 36th.

Golden Spin
Niki Wories was 18th after the SP with 42.85 points. There were 23 Sr women in total.

 

[La Rhumba]

There is an actual Santa Claus Cup? Well, why not

Indeed! There is also a Halloween Cup, also in Budapest.

Some news from this side of the channel about a half Dutch extremely talented skater called Phebe Bekker (her Father is Dutch). She won the British Junior Ice Dance Championships with James Hernandez last weekend. She seems to have brought the best out of him, as he's much more expressive now, even though he's the reigning champion with his previous partner.
Phebe was a successful Solo icedancer, which is very popular in UK, before partnering Theo Alexander and training at Lee Valley in London to be 5th at Junior British before they broke up. So this has only been her second competitive season at the age of 16. She actually has a Flemish look about her features, and now she's settled training with James in New Jersey, I'm afraid no chance of her competing for the Netherlands!

 

[ladyjane]

Indeed! There is also a Halloween Cup, also in Budapest.

Some news from this side of the channel about a half Dutch extremely talented skater called Phebe Bekker (her Father is Dutch). She won the British Junior Ice Dance Championships with James Hernandez last weekend. She seems to have brought the best out of him, as he's much more expressive now, even though he's the reigning champion with his previous partner.
Phebe was a successful Solo icedancer, which is very popular in UK, before partnering Theo Alexander and training at Lee Valley in London to be 5th at Junior British before they broke up. So this has only been her second competitive season at the age of 16. She actually has a Flemish look about her features, and now she's settled training with James in New Jersey, I'm afraid no chance of her competing for the Netherlands!

Lucky you. Having said that, I'm actually quite pleased we've got 2 sr pairs and 2 sr ID couples at the same time. Must be the first time in Dutch history. Actually, it was the first time in Dutch history we had a pair at Worlds (we've had pairs at Europeans). Now we need a bit of a build up in these disciplines among the juniors. And, I would be thrilled to have a man taking part again (there was one at one of the international competitions this year but I don't know whether he has a future as his scores were low) as our only and best man so far, Thomas Kennes, has just retired and is now working as a coach.