Figure Skating in Australia

[essence_of_soy]

I just checked out Milania Vaananen's short program from the 2018 Junior Grand Prix of Ostrava. She's very good. Ted Barton likes her, too.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SJ7dDlfMfag

 

[GF2445]

From ISA photos, our Four Continents Squad is:

M:
Brendan Kerry
Andrew Dodds
James Min

W:
Kailani Craine
Brooklee Han
<Sadly, we are still waiting for a third Australian woman to step up, or pull away from the 'peloton' (so to speak) and join the top two>

P:
Ekaterina Alexandrovskaya & Harley Windsor
<hoping to see a second pair come up in the coming years >

ID:
Chantelle Kerry & Andrew Dodds
Matilda Friend & William Badaoui
India Nette & Eron Westwood* (Pending ISU Tech. Minimums)

 

[essence_of_soy]

<Sadly, we are still waiting for a third Australian woman to step up, or pull away from the 'peloton' (so to speak) and join the top two>

Amelia Jackson was agonisingly close to meeting the minimum junior world TES at last weekend's Grand Prix of Bratislava. That was without including any triple jumps in either of her routines. I believe she is coming back from an injury sustained at the national championships.

Jackson is also entered in several more junior and senior events in January to attempt getting those minimums.

Other skaters with the potential to reach Four Continents minimums are Lucy Sori Yun and Katie Pasfield.

There were three very promising ladies in the Advanced Novice category at the Australian championships. Vlada Vasiliev, Victoria Alcantara and Amelie Tabor are definitely ones to watch for future reference.

 

[karne]

It's interesting, but...I found the gap to the field in the ladies much more stark than in the men.

Brooklee and Kailani were just so, so good and it was so, so obvious they're that good. But in the men, even though on paper with Brendan landing five quads across two programs it looks like it should have been worse, it really wasn't. Andrew won the PCS and that was very much as it should have been, James was a little firecracker, Jordan was excellent, Darian's a little star and Charlton keeps improving in leaps and bounds. The men's event was exciting, even though we knew who was going to win, barring disaster. It was exciting because the other men made it exciting, because we had four men with TES minimums and two spots available (once Brendan is excluded). It was a fight and they all came to play.

I'll be interested to see how much longer Andrew keeps doing both. It didn't appear to affect him at Nationals - and dance and men's were on the same day this year, unlike last year - but Championship level is another matter.

 

[GF2445]

Merry Christmas everyone.
Looking forward to great things from our Australian skaters this coming year.

 

[Andrea82]

Panfield and Nette/Westwood are entered at Mentor Cup on January 8-12th which is the last week to get minimum TES for 4 Continents.

Kerry will also compete there.

Update: Panfield withdrew

 

[GF2445]

Thanks for the update

 

[karne]

Update: Panfield withdrew

Ah, that's a shame. I wonder if it's the same injury that seemed to be bothering her at Nationals?

 

[karne]

Sadly, India and Eron didn't get the minimums at Torun. But I have high hopes for next year!

 

[GF2445]

Sad news everyone.
Macquarie Centre management have made the decision to demolish the Macquarie Ice Rink next year, for the purpose to make way for centre upgrades. This was the ice rink that hosted nationals last month.

 

[karne]

Sad news everyone.
Macquarie Centre management have made the decision to demolish the Macquarie Ice Rink next year, for the purpose to make way for centre upgrades. This was the ice rink that hosted nationals last month.

WHAT? No!

 

[anonymoose_au]

Sad news everyone.
Macquarie Centre management have made the decision to demolish the Macquarie Ice Rink next year, for the purpose to make way for centre upgrades. This was the ice rink that hosted nationals last month.

I heard this on the radio and almost cried! This is awful news and so unfair! They just refurbished the rink and it's always so well used! It's been around for 30 years!

AMP (the owners of Macquarie Centre) should hang their heads in shame!

Also petition to save the rink: http://chng.it/9yWfRpCZ

 

[GF2445]

I heard this on the radio and almost cried! This is awful news and so unfair! They just refurbished the rink and it's always so well used! It's been around for 30 years!

AMP (the owners of Macquarie Centre) should hang their heads in shame!

Also petition to save the rink: http://chng.it/9yWfRpCZ

So the reason seems to be that they want to create more access for the metro trains and other transport hub services.
Surely the centre could have been able to let them know earlier that this was their intention.

Sydney just lost Norwest icerink in late 2017. Even though there are plans for that rink to move to a new site, who knows how many years it will take for that to happen?

 

[essence_of_soy]

I saw the recent national championships in Sydney at this rink. It is a world class facility which serves many skaters, as well as hockey players and short track athletes local to the general area.

I guess one of the issues I have with removing any popular recreational attraction, is that when it is discovered by the powers that be somewhere down the tracks that it was utilised after all, it takes so much more time, money and red tape to relaunch a new facility elsewhere.

What frustrates me is that when Victoria closed three of its rinks, it took a decade for sporting bodies to realise the mistake they made, a tremendous cost to replace them, and years until the state produced championship level skaters again.

 

[GF2445]

Tilly and William will be finishing their season campaign at the 2019 Winter Universiade in Krasnoyarsk, Russia next month. We congratulate them for the entry into the Universiade, which is the most prestigious event in University elite sports, and wish them the best of luck.

Their entry into the Universiade means that they will likely not be taking part in the World Junior Figure Skating Championships in Zagreb, Croatia- which is being held at the same time.

ISA is yet to release a document on who will be representing Australia and Junior and Senior Worlds.

 

[dorispulaski]

They now have their own fan fest thanks to @GoneWithTheWind

https://www.goldenskate.com/forum/showthread.php?79095-Matilda-Friend-amp-William-Badaoui

 

[GF2445]

As I was surfing Youtube, Holly Harris' SP appeared on my feed, and remembered how wonderful her skating is.
She hasn't competed in years despite her insta looking like she still skates.
Has there been any news about her since her injury?

 

[Harriet]

As I was surfing Youtube, Holly Harris' SP appeared on my feed, and remembered how wonderful her skating is.
She hasn't competed in years despite her insta looking like she still skates.
Has there been any news about her since her injury?

I vaguely remember hearing some gossip about her taking up ice dance, but I don't know how reliable that might have been.

 

[GF2445]

I vaguely remember hearing some gossip about her taking up ice dance, but I don't know how reliable that might have been.

I can see her doing ice dance. Holly has good attention to her leg lines and extension of her arms.
Thanks for the heads up.

 

[toots]

Was waiting for this to start. I’m sure that’s why the NSW Instagram page has restarted ready to promote her next season - it will be full on regardless of results. Pretty sure your up to speed GF2445 - it’s kind of funny . It will be good to see some competition in dance with a few good seniors but let’s hope all of the dancers who have been working for years get equal support and publicity.