Ice Link issue 59 (Page 3) - National Ice Skating Association

Ice
INSIDE
Issue 59 - April 2005
Link
The official voice of ice skating in the UK
British Short Track
Championships 2005
......centre pages
The Synchro Page -
Nottingham Cup
.........p9
Developing Youth Ice Sport
Novice & Pre
Novice Champs
.........p11
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Kerrs qualify for 2006
Olympics ISU President attends Nottingham
Cup Synchro International at NIC
Congratulations to the Great Britain squad that performed at last month's World
Championships in Moscow, John Hamer, Jenna McCorkell, and John and Sinead
Kerr.
For John and Sinead the event was the conclusion of an excellent season which saw them achieve all
their personal, NISA and Sportscotland targets. Their 12th position finish at the World Championships
gives the couple automatic entry into the 2006 Olympics.
It has certainly been an eventful year for the brother and sister dance team from Edinburgh.
Following their 10th place finsh in the 2004 European Championships, they danced to 5th place at
the ISU Skate America Grand Prix in their first
international of the new season.
They then boosted their confidence for their
British Championships title defence with another
5th place at ISU GP Cup of Russia, in a field
where all competitors were in the world top 10!
After retaining their British crown for a second
time, the pair were much in demand at Christmas
ice shows throughout the UK, culminating in a
Hogmany special from the Somerset House
outdoor rink, watched by millions on BBC TV.
January saw them compete in the Turin European
Championships - venue for next year's Olympics -
where they bettered their 2004 debut
performance, improving to 8th place despite a
nasty injury for Sinead, when she fell during the
making of the BBC documentary "Dancing on
Ice".
It was with great hopes that Sinead and John,
together with John Hamer and Jenna McCorkell
set off for Moscow and the 2005 World
Championships. Now fully fit, the couple
exceeded expectations when they placed 12th
in the compulsory dance, the Midnight Blues. In
the Original Dance, they skated 4th in the 3rd
group and achieved a personal best score, and
placed in 11th. In the Free Dance they dropped
to 13th, however, overall they finished up two
places on last year at 12th, to secure their ticket
to next year's Olympics.
2006 will be the start of John and Sinead’s new
4-year plan which will see ambitious targets
culminating in a quest for medals at the World
Championships and at the 2010 Olympics.
Congratulations must also go to our other GB
Team competitors - John Hamer from Gillingham,
in his first World Championships, qualified in
STOP
PRESS
14th place and although he skated a good 28th
in the Short, did not make the Free, Jenna
meanwhile, started well with a qualifying round
10th place, skated to a promising 16th position
in the Short, but could not consolidate this fully
in the Free, finishing 22nd overall - a two place
improvement on 2004 nonetheless. Both John
and Jenna will still have another opportunity to
qualify for Olympics at the Karl Schafer ISU event
later this year.
ISU President Ottavio Cinquanta (left) prepares to present trophies at the Nottingham Cup, accompanied by
Helen Poole (ISU TC), Petra Tyrbo (Referee) ISU, and Mitch Stevenson OBE Chairman NIC
The 1st Nottingham Cup
International Synchro competition
held on March 2-6th, received a
most welcome boost by the presence of
ISU President Ottavio Cinquanta, who
accepted an invitation from NISA
Chairman Haig Oundjian to attend the
event.
As well as witnessing some excellent
Synchro teams in action at the magnificent
NIC Arena, the President was able to see
for himself our world-class facilities for ice
skating in the UK, both at Nottingham and
Sheffield.
In addition to visiting our National Centres,
NISA Chairman Haig Oundjian took the
opportunity to explain to the ISU President,
many of the strategies and initiatives the
association is working towards within the UK,
including Haig's personal commitment to
integrating sports development and education.
Mr Cinquanta has subsequently communicated
to the NISA Chairman, first to express his
gratitude for the hospitality extended to him
during his visit, and warmly commending the
organisation of the international event, and
secondly to offer his support for the
association's initiatives - "you can consider me
well devoted to the programme you explained
and as soon as you see how the ISU activity
can possibly and adequately fit to it, please
do not fail to let me know".
NISA has bid to host the 2008 World Figure Skating Championhips in partnership with American Anschultz
Entertainment Group, the new owners of the London Dome. If we are successful we are both committed to hosting
what will be the best ever World Championships in the history of the ISU. The event will be held in the Dome, where
a permanent 22,000 seater Olympic ice arena is planned. Exciting times ahead ... updates in Ice Link Issue 60

Ice Link Issue 59 page 2
Ice
Link Editor's Comment
Ihave been particularly moved by the
article on p3 by NISA Chairman Haig
Oundjian. Haig is a man of enormous
character and commitment to sport and
young people. Few people in fact know
just how much he has personally done
over the years, and continues to do, to
help support our young skaters, not only
as NISA Chairman, but as Haig Oundjian.
In his article he reveals how he himself
was helped to achieve his skating
Bryan Morrice - Editor
dreams by one such benefactor, which motivated him in turn to
repay that moral 'debt' to many more young skaters who
followed him. He is not alone as a benefactor to today's skaters,
there are several others who also quietly assist our developing
talent. What he is proposing however, is a more formalised
approach to the future support of our skaters - creating a cycle
of opportunity - with those who have been helped today,
making a moral commitment in turn to help the up-and-coming
young talent of tomorrow, putting back what they have taken
out. Not everyone will be in a position to do so, but if support
today leads to greater success, then those who enjoy and
benefit from that success should have a moral responsibility to
repay that investment to help future generations who follow.
The long term future of our sport is enormously dependent on
the need for success - "nothing breeds success more than
success" - is so very true. Investing in our future talent increases
our chances of World and Olympic success, which in turn
increases interest and participation. TV coverage, means rinks
attract more skaters, coaches teach more skaters, demand leads
to more ice rinks; and of course more skaters increases the
chances of finding and nurturing the next generation of
champions.
Editor/Designer/Layout/Chief Reporter/Dogsbody ~ Bryan Morrice.
Design Assistant ~ Julie Morrice
Photographs ~ NISA Official Photographer - Louvain Woodmass Publisher
~ NISA NIC Lower Parliament Street, Nottingham NG1 1LA Tel: 0115 988
8060 Fax: 0115 988 8061 or e-mail on nisa@iceskating.org.uk Website:
www.iceskating.org.uk
Contributions, articles, news, photos and information from your rinks are
always welcome. If you have a contribution, or would like to help, contact the
editor at 'Brackenlea', Lower Glenhead, Kemnay, Aberdeenshire
AB51 5PR Telephone: 01467 641389 (set to answerphone only
/ no fax); E-mail on - bryan.morrice@btinternet.com
Views expressed in Ice Link are those of the editor and/or contributors
but not necessarily those of the Governing Bodies or Officers.
Copyright is reserved and while all efforts are made for accuracy, no
responsibility can be accepted for printed errors or matters arising
from them. No part of the newspaper may be reproduced without
written permission from the publishers.
Letters to
the Editor
Dear Bryan,
I was really disappointed with the coverage of
the British Synchro Championships in issue 58
of ice link. For many skaters synchro is the
only discipline they participate in and it is
often entirely omitted from 'Ice Link'
altogether. I would of expected more than 7
lines with no information about how the teams
performed at all. This would never have
happened to the British Figure skating
championships. Please do not let this happen
again, I really feel you have let all the skaters
who performed in the championships down.
Regards, Mary Durell, Synchro Skater
Ed: Thank you for your e-mail, and as editor
of Ice Link I entirely share your
disappointment that Issue 58 could not
carry the Synchro Championships feature as
I had originally planned. It is probably not
too widely known that Ice Link is produced
entirely by me from my home up here in the
wilds of Aberdeenshire, and I am
completely dependent on people sending
me photographs, reports and articles, or
what I can glean from the internet. If
nobody sends me anything there's nothing
for me to publish. In fact we had arranged
for video and photo coverage of the
Championships with our new photographer
Louvain Woodmass (sadly Peter Davies of
Icephoto has had to give up skating
photography due to ill health), however,
Louvain was taken ill on the morning of the
Championships and was unable to take
photographs. I did try to get some photos
from others who had been at the event but I
could only source posed photos of one or
two teams, and the skaters in those photos
were not always the same skaters that had
competed at the championships. It would
not have been appropriate to print those,
nor was it really fair to print some
championship winners and not others.
Consequently I had to make the difficult
decision to simply print the results. I can
assure you it was not what was planned, and
in no way was it intended as a slight against
Synchro. To be honest, I have prided myself
as being something of a "champion"‚ of
Synchro and have tried very hard to
promote the sport, especially up here in
Scotland. Looking back over the past year's
issues of Ice Link, I can't agree that Ice Link
often ignores the sport, and Synchro has
actually featured in every single
issue. In issue 53 (Feb 2004),
there was a full colour page of
coverage of the 2004
Championships, a front page
colour photo, and a further
colour feature and photo from
NIC. In issue 54, there was a
further full 3/4 colour page
devoted to Synchro, including a report on
the World Championships, and British
international team news. In issue 55, we
published full details of the 2004-5 Synchro
Championships, rules and qualifying
requirements. In issue 56, there was a full
colour feature on the Highland's first
Synchro camp involving teams from
Inverness and Basingstoke. In issue 57, the
centre page spread featured three Synchro
team photos from the Sk8scotland
Championships in Dumfries. And in this
issue, we have coverage of the recent
Nottingham Cup international, including it
being featured on the front page!
Once again, I'm sorry the coverage in issue
58 could not be up to our usual standard,
but please do not think it is for the want of
trying. If only I could have a full time
network of reporters and photographers,
Ice Link could always be on the ball - or
should it be "on the ice"!
Editors Note: As a postscript to this, Mary
has offered to write a couple of reports for
Ice Link, and I'm pleased to say that her
most welcome contributions have been
published in this issue. Many thanks Mary.
I also received this next letter from Louvain
Woodmass, the photographer who was
taken ill at the championships, and thought
it would be appropriate to share her
thoughts about Synchro skating with Ice Link
readers.
Dear Bryan,
In January the British Synchro Skating
Championships were held at iceSheffield and
due to an inconsiderate stomach bug I wasn't
able to attend. So instead I had to wait to
see the video footage. Fortunately since Dave
(who operated the video camera) likes to
review the tapes straight away, I was soon
huddled on his sofa for a viewing of the
unedited footage.
There were teams competing with members
ranging in age from the tiny tots to the young
at heart. All the teams had obviously spent
many hours practising and I enjoyed watching
the performances of them all. There were a
few occasions when I held my breath waiting
to see if someone would fall but thankfully
these moments were rare and far
outnumbered by the number of times the
World's most powerful woman is figure skating fan
US Secretary of State, Condoleeza Rice,
after a busy schedule on a visit to
China, brought warm smiles to a Beijing
ice rink, where she admired skaters as they
manipulated the slippery stuff for a career.
With the diplomatic necessities out of the way
for a while, Rice, a big fan of figure skating, met
with a group of young skaters from the Chinese
Skating Association before she finished the last
leg of her Asian tour.
Looking relaxed, she appeared less like the
revered "iron-lady" who controls America's
foreign affairs.
"Figure skating is the most beautiful sport, but it
is very, very hard," acknowledged the most
The closure of Southampton Ice
Rink in 1988 has not stopped
seven members of
Southampton Ice Dance & Figure
Skating Club competing and winning
medals in both national &
international competitions for the
past sixteen and a half years.
The latest award credited to the
skaters was the Powergen Stay
Warm award in which they won
£100. With the opening of the new
Southampton Ice Rink by the end of
2006 the prize money was used to
buy the members new fleeces with
the club logo.
For the first time this year
Southampton will be entering a
team in the RIDL and also members
will be competing in various
categories at the Adult Bracknell
Open competitions in June.
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice chats with world
figure skating champions Shen Xue and Zhao Hongbo
Southampton skaters win Powergen
'Stay Warm' award
Eileen Long Press Officer
for SID & FSC
photo courtesy Southern Daily Echo
photographer Gordon Agg-Jones
The skaters ages range from 60 years to 76 years in ascending order
from left to right. Mick Whitfield, Eileen Long, Edna Boden, Ian
Woolley ( Powergen), Gloria Byrne, Peter Baker, Sally Jolliffe & Joy
Shellard.
important woman in the current US
administration.
Rice, born in 1954 in Birmingham, Alabama, said
she had no idea of what skating was until her
family moved to the snowy mountains of Denver,
Colorado. Figure skating turned out to be her
passion of a lifetime. From the age of 12, she
skated seriously for six years, she said.
But her busy schedule as a top diplomat has
prevented her from skating, even as a hobby. "I
have not skated for the past six or seven years,"
she lamented".
But she appeared delighted to meet with
Chinese world pair skating champions Shen Xue
and Zhao Hongbo.
Self
catering
apartments in
Oberstdorf from £300
per week
Beautiful Alpine
village, ideal for
skiers and skaters -
three ice rinks.
Contact
www.alpineholiday.co.uk
WIFA
BOOT & BLADE
STARTER SETS
teams had me sucking my breath in
amazement. What did come across was a
sense of fun with teams chanting around the
arena, both at and for each other. I
understand this good humour even managed
to survive the freezing cold outside during a
fire alarm. To me this is one of the best
aspects of any sport and all in all it made me
regret not being there in person for the
experience.
Fortunately I didn't have long to wait to get to
see some of the teams in action as there was a
good British entry in the Nottingham Cup
2005, the first International Synchro Skating
event to be held in the UK. Teams came from
Russia, USA, Canada, Finland, Holland and
France as well as Britain to compete over 3
days at the NIC. Unfortunately no medals for
any of our teams but they did us proud by
skating well. The stars of the show however
were undoubtedly the Russians, Team
Paradise, who dazzled everyone to win the
Senior section. It was wonderful to see what
can be achieved in the Synchro event although
it was a shame that more spectators weren't
there to see it. I think a lot of skaters have a
tendency to look at Synchro as an inferior part
of the skating scene which is a shame.
However I doubt anyone could have watched
the Nottingham Cup and not been inspired by
some of the moves performed. This is a fast
growing part of our sport and the teams at
iceSheffield in January and the NIC in March
did a good job in showing why.
Regards, Louvain
Dear Bryan,
Just come back from Junior Worlds and had a
look through last Ice Link. You got a few
mistakes in the issue, on the front page Jenna
McCorkell has turned 18 end of the last year,
not 19. Also It was a suprise to find out Joy
Sutcliffe GB Head Coach, on page 5 and on
the same page some incorrections with the
skater age as well. On the front page it is
quite important to deliver correct information.
Kind Regards, Yuri Bureiko
Ed; Thanks for pointing this out Yuri, it's a
case of 'mea culpa' - my mental arithmetic
from Jenna's date of birth at fault here! As
regards the "GB Coach" matter, the article
was supplied to me by NIC PR Dept. NISA
does not in fact employ, endorse or
sponsor such a position for figure skating,
although for Short Track we do employ
Stuart Horsepool as National Coach, which is
funded entirely through the Lottery World
Class Programmes.
Merchandise
NISA is pleased to offer members a
range of quality clothing and
accessories at very competitive
prices
All proceeds go to Skaters Fund
Telephone order line:
0870 758 0278
Tights order line:
0870 758 0269
For details and orders contact:
WIFA INTERNATIONAL UK John Turner, 75 Springfield Road,
Kings Heath, Birmingham B14 7DU
Tel/Fax: 0121 441 3405 Mobile: 077100 66218

Ice Link Issue 59 page 3
Bursary cash idea to support our future
generations of skaters
NISA Chairman Haig Oundjian has always been a supporter of British
skating talent, and in this article he outlines his own personal vision of how
today's skaters can help tomorrow's rising stars - we'd welcome your
thoughts on this idea, so get writing or e-mailing to Ice Link!
For many years, and particularly over
recent months, there has been much
stated both in the media and within
skating circles about the lack of funding for
talented athletes. Certainly, ice skating is
one of the most expensive sports in the world
and can be an enormous drain on family
resources.
In fact, as many of you will be aware, I have
recently become a founder and co-sponsor of an
"Academy Sports School" - essentially a state school
that operates a flexible educational programme,
allowing athletes of various sports to participate in
their sport during times when facilities are
otherwise not in use, in other words, during the
school day! Thus creating an athlete driven
education agenda.
Recently I was a guest on the Eurosport World
Championships coverage when the topic again
raised its head - why is it that our top skaters have
so little funding that they cannot afford to receive
the same level of coaching or technical support as
skaters from other countries?
As I think is well known, I began my skating career
in Canada, where for some 50 years now the CFSA
(Skate Canada) has operated a "Skaters' Bursary".
This is a forum which allows benefactors of the
sport to come forward and make contributions to
this specific fund. The funds are then allocated
according to the Talent Identification Programme,
allowing athletes access to improved and enhanced
coaching opportunities and support.
Over many decades, most of the skaters who have
been beneficiaries of these funds have managed to
improve their future opportunities and brought
about a greater level of success than they would
otherwise have been able to afford. Subsequently,
many of them have had very successful professional
careers and have been morally encouraged to make
donations themselves to the Bursary Fund.
The notion of accepting loans or Bursary donations
to improve future earnings is not a new
phenomenon in Canada or the States. In fact,
"student loans" are commonplace and most
university graduates are obliged to allocate a small
percentage of their earnings to repay these loans.
Obviously, these loans are forthcoming from banks
and similar educational institutions.
Therefore, as a concept, if say £1 million is loaned
to 1,000 students in one year, then these
funds/loans regenerate themselves over the next
10-15 years, thereby benefiting another 1,000
students. The students make repayment out of
increased earnings due to their enhanced
qualifications.
I hope the principle of this is not lost on us! We
only have one youth and a single opportunity to
excel at a sport (education) in our lives. To have
the opportunity to be "the best we can be" and
then make a repayment for having that opportunity
over the next say 15 years of our lives is probably
not an unreasonable notion.
Not only does it give the individual the opportunity
to determine what their true potential may be, but
surely by investing in a higher level of coaching,
facilities and support, it is clearly obvious that one
is bound to improve and thereby attain a higher
standard generally. In life, high levels of
achievement are always rewarded - therefore, one
repays the initial cost out of the increased earning
A youthful Haig jumping for success at Streatham - grateful to a benefactor who helped him to
achieve his ambitions. He has since repaid this unselfish altruism many times over, through his own
generosity to today's generations of young, talented skaters who followed him.
power created by the initial loan!
I have been advocating this principle for some six
years now and indeed many members of the
current and past Board of NISA have received
lengthy documentation on this concept from me.
I do not believe however that such a "Bursary"
should be offered on a contractual basis and I do
not believe that penalties for failure to honour the
terms should ever be applied.
IT IS MY BELIEF THAT THIS SHOULD BE AN
ENTIRELY VOLUNTARY AND MORAL
UNDERTAKING AND NEVER A CONTRACTUAL
OBLIGATION!
Some years ago, as some of you may recall, the
British Figure Skating Trust was established in the
United Kingdom. Reasonably substantial funds were
made available to skaters who wished to receive
support during the critical time of their athletic
development. However, the terms for these loans
were contained in a contract which had clear
penalties and obligations. I am totally opposed to
such a notion - and fought against these onerous
terms at that time!
Many years ago, at the age of 17, my family
decided that my skating career should come to a
close. I had achieved selection for the 1968
Olympic Games and was placed second in Great
Britain. My father was adamant that my education
and my future career must henceforth be dictated
outside of skating.
However, I believed there was still much unfinished
opportunity within me. My family were adamant
and I was informed that should I choose to go back
to skating, it would have to be at my own expense!
As it transpired - and I have never revealed this
before - there was a certain person who believed
in my ability and wanted very much to see me
attempt to realise my potential. Subsequently, I
was granted sufficient funding to allow me to return
to skating, yet complete my education and work in
the afternoons/evenings.
This support enabled me to achieve my ambitions
and win three British titles, a European bronze
medal and the European Free Skating title - a
notation in the Guinness Book of World Records
and achieve a top 5 ranking in the world. I have no
doubt that without that support I would never have
returned to skating - particularly against the wishes
of my family!
Since then, and given a reasonably successful
business career, I have made considerable
contributions to charity, national novice skating
events and and other sports, while also privately
assisting many ice skaters over the last decades.
This has never been public knowledge and only the
skaters who received the assistance are aware of it.
I have done this in recognition of the gesture that
was afforded me some 35 years ago!
However, today I believe we need to formalise this
structure. I believe there are many people like
myself who would like to be benefactors and assist
the sport they love and believe in. We are all
conscious of the immense ordeals and challenges
that face young athletes today. Again, this is why I
decided to create the first-ever fully integrated
Sports Academy School. However, as far as British
Ice Skating is concerned, and I must stressthat it is
my personal belief (please do not misunderstand
this as a policy representation of NISA) that a
formal Bursary Fund, operating through the "Skaters'
Fund" would encourage small annual contributions
from a vast cross-section of skaters and supporters
of ice skating. But what we need is an identifiable
mechanism by which this could operate.
Furthermore, we need to know that "the circle of
life" will apply to the funds that are donated (either
publicly or privately) to this Bursary/ Skaters' Fund.
By this, I would advocate that all applicants who
are approved, given their level of talent and
potential, would enter into a "voluntary" letter of
intention that, having received the Bursary funding
during the critical developmental period of their
careers, should they in future make a living from ice
skating, then they would "try" to donate to the
"Bursary Fund" (either publicly or privately). This
would be generated for a total of no more than
10% of their annual income in order to re-invest the
same sum as was granted to them, but to a future
skater of another decade/generation. This means
that the initial Bursary grant has the chance of
retaining a life of its own, predicated on goodwill
and a moral recognition.
This would never be a contract, but be a moral
undertaking, with no penalties for failure to do so,
since this is not a contract and no question of any
interest at all!
The beauty of the scheme, which as I say effectively
originates in Canada and the States, is that
everyone gets a chance to be "the best they can
be"! However, because of the "intention" behind
the scheme, the individual feels they are
participating in the evolution of the funds. In other
words, there is little doubt that additional funds
will improve the standard of performance.
Subsequently, in my experience, there should be an
immense pleasure in giving this back on a voluntary
basis and having that incredible opportunity of
watching the thrill of another generation benefiting
from the same opportunity!
What has always saddened me is the statement "if
only I had had the opportunity"! I am deeply
touched that children should ever be limited by
opportunity and I am delighted to say that the
current government is beginning to recognise this
ethos. Sadly, it will be too late for the vast majority
of this current generation but hopefully in time, all
children will have the opportunity of discovering
the true depth of their own potential and talent.
Until then, I would like to think that a structured
system as I have outlined could be put in place and
encourage "the rolling circle of opportunity in life".
Regional Centres set to raise standards in skating
In an important new initiative aimed at raising
the quality and standards of ice skating as a
product, NISA has recently launched a new
network of Regional Centres of Excellence across
England. At a major conference held at the Village
Hotel and Leisure club on Monday 7th March 2005,
ten Regional Centres committed to work with NISA
for the development of Excellence within Ice
Skating across England. The ten centres are as
follows:
Swindon South West
Lee Valley London (incl Herts & Essex)
Guildford London
Nottingham and IceSheffield.
In order to qualify as Regional Centres of
Excellence, rinks are required to meet a number of
minimum standards, which include for example:
� Delivery of Skate UK courses as stipulated by
NISA using and employing only NCCP Registered
coaches
� Work with the NISA Performance Team to
develop elite athletes and ensure that both
athletes and coaches have skating development
plans
� Provide NISA with approximately 250 hours of
ice time for the development of skating
the new initiative. He commented "NISA has
recognised for some time the need to regionalise
across England in order to meet the delivery
Regional Centre Official Logo
the ten Regional Centres will now be at the
vanguard of this new movement".
Haig Oundjian, Chairman of NISA added, "NISA has
recently carried out a major restructure of the
squad membership of elite athletes. Working with
the new Centres of Excellence we will be able to
hold local development camps for our squad
skaters that will be more beneficial to our athletes
and will give them excellent training facilities on a
local basis. These regional camps will feed into
National camps that will be held at both
Nottingham and Sheffield. It is important that we
give all our aspiring and elite athletes every
opportunity to access quality and timely ice. For
Milton Keynes South East
excellence
too long our talented skaters have had to travel
Telford West Midlands
Coventry West Midlands
Hull Yorkshire
Bradford Yorkshire
Blackburn North West
The appointment of the centres will complement
the work that NISA currently carries out with its two
National Centres - the National Ice Centre in
� Have a single NISA accredited club covering all
figure skating disciplines, which will work
towards the recognised Sport England
clubmark accreditation
� Have available a meeting and lecture room
Recognised Regional Centre rinks will be allowed to
use a dedicated logo which can be used on all
communication/promotional activities
Keith Horton, General Secretary of NISA welcomed
objectives that we have as an Association and also
to access the new funding streams that are
becoming available from Lottery monies which are
now distributed on a regional basis throughout
England. Our Association and indeed rink owners,
have recognised that there is a need to raise the
quality of the product that we are able to offer the
skating public and we are extremely pleased that
long distances, often at unsociable hours, not only
to skate but also to attend camps. We need to
change this culture. It is also important that our
athletes have access to sports science and sports
medicine facilities. All our Regional Centres will
develop relationships with local Universities in
order to provide ongoing additional support to our
athletes".

Ice Link Issue 59 page 4
NISA official stuff!
Attention all skaters, coaches, judges and officials - this is the page to read to keep
up to date with all the Association's Official Information
For full details also check NISA website www.iceskating.org.uk
Due to lack of space in this issue, we are unable to publish all recent Official and Technical
Announcements. Members are advised to always check the NISA website for full details
New Judging System Bulletin 6 - NJS Dance Competitions & Tests 2005
Further to queries regarding the date of the first
NJS competition and the practicability of
completing OD and FD in time for the first event,
the following information is given to reassure
coaches and skaters that programs should be
completed using the previously announced criteria
and any alterations should then be made following
clarifications announced after Worlds. Any
clarifications will be made available on the NISA
website as soon as published by ISU. The NJS
competitions will be judged using all current
criteria as at 1st July 2005 but it is accepted that
this is an early stage in the season’s preparation for
all skaters.
OD and FD requirements are outlined in ISU
Regulations 2004 page 29 onwards, ISU
Communication 1260, 1274 and 1295.and 1288 for
Primary (ISU Novice). Clarifications will be
published by the ISU that will affect the
construction and evaluation of programs - so
please look for the publication of ISU
communications following the world
championships.
Whilst constructing programmes for both Junior and
Senior, we would like to make you aware of
discussions regarding the details of the
requirements that may be amended following open
discussions that took place at ISU Grand Prix and
Championship events this year.
A review of the way the calculation of the no hold
step sequence is underway. It is likely that there
will be separate evaluation of the twizzles and the
actual steps. This is because the points value of a
NH Step Sequence with Level 2 steps and Level 4
twizzles is the same as for one containing Level 3
steps and Level 4 twizzles. The separation of the
evaluation of these elements is most likely to be
adopted.
There will only be one split allowed in the lift
elements and it is intended to make upside down
split lifts an illegal element as these are considered
undignified.
The rhythms for the Latin OD have been specified
but there may be a grouping of the rhythms into:
Group 1 - Rhumba, Cha Cha Cha, Samba and Group
2 - Mambo, Marengue, Salsa. Only one rhythm from
group 2 can be used and if used, this must be
combined with 2 from Group 1. This proposal has
still to be fully clarified but, it would be
inadvisable at this point, for coaches to select
music that consists wholly of Group 2 rhythms.
It is also being discussed that the step sequences
in the FD will be a free choice of two from midline,
diagonal, circular (clockwise / counter clockwise)
or serpentine (clockwise / counter clockwise).
Adjustments to the point value will be made for
circular and serpentine step sequences that are
New Judging System Bulletins 7 & 8
mainly clockwise.
It was also discussed that there should be a
reduction in the number of spin elements in the
senior FD to one.
Please check the regulations very carefully to
ensure that you are taking advantage, wherever
possible, of all of the factors in elements that will
give an increase in level. These requirements are
strictly adhered to in the competitive environment
by the technical specialist and no leeway will be
given if an element does not quite meet the
requirement for a particular level.
If we become aware of any further proposed
changes we will keep you informed.
NJS ICE DANCE COMPETITIONS 2005
SENIORS
Competition 1 iceSheffield 4-6th July 2005
Ravensburger Waltz, Original Dance
and Free Dance
Competition 2 NIC Nottingham 14-16th Sept 2005
Yankee Polka, Original Dance and
Free Dance
Competition 3 Dumfries 15-21st Oct (during
Scottish Championships)
Tango Romantica, Original Dance
and Free Dance
Original Dance and Free Dance as per ISU Rules
and Regulations 2004, Communications and further
guidelines to be announced.
JUNIORS (Dates as above)
Competition 1 Austrian Waltz, Original Dance and
Free Dance
Competition 2 Paso Doble, Original Dance and
Free Dance
Competition 3 Westminister Waltz or Quickstep to
be drawn, Original Dance and Free
Dance
Original Dance and Free Dance as per ISU Rules
and Regulations 2004, Communications and further
guidelines to be announced.
PRIMARY (Dates as above)
Competition 1 Rocker Foxtrot, European Waltz and
Free Dance
Competition 2 Paso Doble , Rocker Foxtrot and
Free Dance
Competition 3 European Waltz, Paso Doble and
Free Dance
Free Dance as per ISU communication 1288 for ISU
Novice, ISU Rules and Regulations 2004 and
communications as appropriate.
NJS Bulletin 7 is now available to download from the NISA website and contains (unofficial) information about
guidelines for the Original Dance for season 2005-6. This information has been published in advance of the
official ISU Bulletin. Also available on the NISA website is NJS Bulletin 8.
Judging Panels for Figure Singles & Pairs & Figure & Dance, Beginner Couples 2005
Level Referee Minimum Judge Standard
Beginner / Level 1 - 4 Junior 2 x Level 4; 1 x Level Prob 2 / 4
Level 5 - 6 Junior 2 x Level 6; 1 x Level 4
Level 7 - 8 Junior 2 x Level 8; 1 x Level 6
Level 9 - 10 / Higher Junior 2 x Level 10; 1 x Level 8
Beginner Couples Junior Figure / Dance 3 x Level 8 Figure / Dance
Novice Pairs Pair / Junior Figure 3 x Level 10
Pre Novice Junior 3 x Probationary Competitive
Novice / Primary Senior 2 x Lower Competitive 1 x Probationary
Competitive
Attention NISA Cup Skaters
A reminder to all skaters wishing to enter the NISA Cup (5t h- 9th August 2005 at IceSheffield).
Announcement, Technical Criteria and entry forms are available for this event on the NISA website or from
the NISA office. Even if you do
not fill in your entry form at the present moment, it would be helpful if you could register a planned entry.
This is to enable NISA to plan the number of days required to hold these competitions since it is the first
ever National event to be held for skaters holding Standard tests.
Pre Novice Tests, Competitions & Championships
The NISA Board has approved the decision to remove the Pre-Novice Tests, Competitions and Championships
from the NISA Competitive Schedule from 31st December 2005. This decision was taken with consultation from
Figure Technical Committee, Coaching and Performance Directorate, and NJS Technical Specialists.
The Pre-Novice tests and events are not serving the original intended purpose as a development towards
competitive elite skating and with the introduction of NJS into NISA, it would have been difficult to integrate this
level into the NJS system planned for NISA in the future.
Therefore there will be no Pre-Novice tests held after 31st December 2005 and no Pre-Novice Championship in
2006 (Novice Championships will still be held). Skaters will continue to be able to skate their programme within
the Standard Test structure, competitions and events, and work towards Novice Competitive Test and
Championship. The NISA Cup (5th-9th August 2005) is also an option open to those skaters who wish to
compete in a national event.
Synchronized Skating Technical Requirements for British Championships 2006
2006 Senior, Junior and Novice Synchro Championships
Two Open Synchro events will be held in 2005 combined with those for Figure and Dance (NJS Events).
NIC Nottingham 14 - 16th September
Dumfries 15 - 21st October (during the Scottish Championships)
Both events will be judged using the NJS method as will the 2006 British Championships in these three
categories. The September NJS Open at NIC will offer separate Senior and Junior Short and Long Programme
events and the October Open at Dumfries will require the usual combined Short and Long programmes. Novice
teams can skate a Free Skating programme in both NJS Opens. No individual test qualification will be required
this year in these categories and no minimum NJS team score will be required for entry to the 2006
Championship. For International events, teams will be assessed during the NJS Opens and at the British
Championships and any assignments will be made by the NISA Performance Directorate as appropriate.
Juvenile, Intermediate (formerly Mixed Age) and Adult categories
There will be two events for these categories; during the Dumfries Scottish Open Championships 15-21st
October 2005, and Saturday 19th November 2005 at Lee Valley
Synchro Performance Camp July 28-29th at Lee Valley (for Juniors & Seniors): An international moderator will
present, and it will be mandatory to attend as part of performance training. Further details see NISA website.
ADULTS
Event
INTERMEDIATE
(formerly Mixed Age)
JUVENILE
NOVICE
JUNIOR
SENIOR
Performance Update - Information regarding British Squads
Due to reduced funding available this year for Squad
development, Squad numbers and programmes have
had to be reviewed and rationalised. In consultation
with various British international judges, and the
Performance Group, the Squad system is now as
follows:
British Performance Squad (skaters funded through
NISA Skaters Fund or UK Sport funding)
British Squad – Senior
British Squad – Junior
British Development Squad
Squad skaters retention on the Squad will be
reviewed throughout the season and skaters are
required to maintain and improve performance and
skill levels (through individual targets set) whilst
continuing to fulfil the criteria for Squad selection.
Retention on the Squad is not guaranteed for the
entire season. The review process of Squad skaters
will take place quarterly during Squad training days,
monitoring sessions and at NJS competitions, where
individual targets will be set and then monitored.
National Squad Training Camp days are listed below.
National Squad Training Days will be held at Ice
Sheffield: Sunday May 22nd-Tuesday May 24th, Friday
August 19th-Sunday August 21st, Sunday 13th
November-Tuesday 15th November, Sunday 26th
February-Tuesday 28th February.
National Squad Training Days - Limited Non Squad
Skater places available
There are limited places on each of the National
Squad Training Days available to non Squad skaters in
Figure Skating (Solo Free Skating and Ice Dancing
couples). Applications are now being taken for the
Camps in May and August. Each training day runs for a
day and half, as all the skaters will be separated into
two halves, for example at the first camp half will
attend Sunday-Monday, and the second set will attend
Monday-Tuesday. Applications will be on a first come
first served basis within each group standard until the
limited places are filled. Only skaters qualified to
Age Min Test Max Test Short Prog Free Skating
Over 21 years by 1st
July 2005
Must not have
reached 35 years by
1st July 2005
Maximum 12 years by
1st July 2005
Must be 10 but not
reached 15 years by
1st July 2005
Minimum 12 and
maximum 19 years by
1st July 2005
Must be 14 years or
over by 1st July 2005
N/A N/A N/A 3min 30sec
±10secs
50% of team members
must have NISA Novice
Synchronized test by
Championships closing
date
We are once again sorry to bring members sad
news of the passing of the former British Ice
Dance Champion Pauline Borrajo who died on
February 21st 2005 at the Kensington Nursing Home,
London, aged 93. Born on August 25th 1911, she
joined the NSA in 1930, and passed the gold medal
proficiency tests in ice figure and ice dancing, and
later became a silver medallist in pairs skating. Her
principle trainer was the legendary Gladys Hogg, who
became a lifelong friend. She also had lessons at
various times from Howard Nicholson (coach to Sonja
Henie), Bob Dench, and for figures, Jacques
Gerschwiler.
Her first competitive success came in 1935, when she
won the Manchester Ice Dance Trophy with the
Australian skater Sydney Croll. She was twice runner-
N/A N/A 3min 30sec
±10secs
N/A N/A 3min 30sec
±10secs
N/A N/A N/A 3min 30sec
±10secs
N/A N/A 2min 40sec 4mins
±10secs
N/A N/A 2min 40sec 4min 30sec
±10secs
compete within Novice through to Senior
Championship levels may apply. Non-Squad skaters
may attend with their coaches.
Coaches cost is £110.00 (covers lecture notes, food,
one night accommodation and entry into all the
classes off ice and on ice time with your skaters
(during group sessions). Non Squad skaters cost is
£160.00 (covers lecture notes, testing results, one
night accommodation, all off ice and on ice classes
and food during the camp).
Non-Squad skaters will be housed with other skaters
at the nominated hotel (first night only). Non-Squad
coaches will be housed with other coaches at the
hotel (first night only). An evening meal will be
provided on the first half day of the camp; and
breakfast, lunch and dinner will be provided on the
next day.
Confirmation of place on the Camp will not be given
until April 20th for the first camp, at this point payment
will be taken for the camp and this will be nonrefundable.
For all other camps- confirmation will be
given one month before the camp start date, and at
this point payment will be taken for the camp and this
will be non-refundable.
To apply for the first and second training days (Camp
One: Sunday May 22nd-Tuesday 24th Camp Two:
Friday 19th –Sunday 21st August), complete and
return to the NISA office the Non-Squad Skater
Application Form with your payment and mail this back
to:
Cath Barker National Performance ManagerNational Ice
Skating Association, Lower Parliament Street,
Nottingham NG1 1LA
For enquiries contact: 0115 9888070 Or email:
cath.barker@iceskating.org.uk
All income generated from non Squad skaters/coaches
places will be re-invested back into developing
performance skating.
Carlisle to get new synthetic ice rink
Thanks to local Carlisle businessman Phil
Cochrane, a permanent 450m2 synthetic ice rink
will open in July as part of the renovation of the
flood damaged Elegant Bathrooms showrooms site.
This new major attraction for Carlisle will see the 'ice'
rink complemented by a restaurant, bar and children's
activity area - the aim being to provide the local
community with a family based package suitable for all
ages. In addition, the 'ice' rink will be equipped with
skate chairs for the disabled, allowing those with
special needs to take full advantage of the facilities. In
keeping with the previous support that has been
extended by Promo Concepts Ice Magic (the
company contracted to install the synthetic ice
equipment), the official opening of the Carlisle rink on
12 July will see a donation of £500 being made to
NISA's Skaters Development Fund. For more
information regarding 'Carlisle On Ice' please contact
Peter Emmett at Promo Concepts Ice Magic on
01477 533620 or email: peter@promoconcepts.co.uk
Pauline Borrajo passes away
up in the British Ice DAnce Championship, in 1938 with
Garry Appleby and in 1939 with Harry Levy (who later
changed his name to Lawrence). After the war, she at
last achieved her ambition, by winning the British Ice
Dance Championships in 1947 and 1948 partnered by
Albert (Sonny) Edmonds. Following her success, she
turned to judging, first as a test judge, later as a
national and international judge. She also served
onvarious NSA committees.
In June 1939 she married J. M. Harvey, a Liverpool
accountant, but in the skating world she was always
known by her maiden name of Borrajo.
(My thanks to Dennis Bird, NISA Historian and Mary
Groombridge for their contributions to this memorial
to Pauline - Bryan Morrice)

The
Skate in a
clockwise
direction
TechFile
Page
Every spin begins in the same way, as shown in the
three stages below left - entering a spin
Skate several
1backwards crossovers and
hold the final
crossover. Bring
the left arm
forwards across
the body
Entrering a spin
Keep the left
shoulder and
arm in front
Step from a
2backward inside
edge to a forward
outside edge. Your
skating leg must be
well bent
Music Angels
More
Skate on a very
strong forward
outside edge for at
least half a circle
Stretch your free
leg to the front
Keep your
back as
straight as
possible
Ice Link Issue 59 page 5
SKATE UK is NISA's flagship 'learn to skate' programme designed to ensure beginners to the sport
receive the very best instruction, delivered by fully qualified coaches, in a fun and enjoyable way.
Spinning
Let the outside
3edge come
around for at least
half a circle before
turning a very quick
three turn
Guildford skater turns cartoonist
Georgie Tier skates at Guildford with coach Daren Gargano and is currently working for her
Gold Level 9 part 2 dance test. During 2004, she started working for a diploma with the
Cartoon Academy, and one of her assignments was to approach a newspaper/magazine with
an appropriate cartoon strip. As an avid skater, she immediately thought of Ice Link.
The cartoon characters she has created are 2 skating dogs called Rocker (the boy) & Twizel (the
girl), and are based on her own two pets - in real life a Doberman called "Spy" and a Jack Russell
known as "Sherriff".
We are pleased to say that Georgie has since passed the Diploma and she is looking forward to
providing Ice LInk with an episode of "Rocker & Twizel" in every forthcoming issue - she hopes that
the Mutts will prove popular with readers!
R
O
C
K
E
R
&
T
W
I
Z
E
L
by
Georgie Tier
�� ����
e can find that special music or edit your own selection using our 20 years
Wof experience and state-of-the-art technology to mix, blend, alter pitch and
tempo - and even add effects to give you the music of your dreams on CD or
Mini Disc.
All music is MCPS and PRS licensed
Tel/Fax: 01284 750805 e-mail info@musicangels.org
After the three turn,
4you will be facing the
opposite direction and
spinning on a backward
inside edge
This Learn-to-skate
series adapted from
'The Young Ice Skater'
by Peter Morrissey
Cowling's
Column
Last year, Ice Link brought you a series of features for
the complete beginner. We are pleased to continue
our series of 'Technical Tips' and introduce more
advanced techniques for the SKATE UK skater
Once you have mastered
the one-footed upright spin
which we looked at in Issue 58, you
may want to try the Sit Spin
More
'tech tips'
Issue 60
5The position for this spin is known as the "one-footed teapot" or
"shooting the duck", and you can practise it without actually
spinning. The sit spin begins and ends in the same way as the
upright spin (see Entering a spin left) and when you are spinning on
the backward inside edge, slowly lower yourself down towards the
ice. Don't lean forwards!
Always spin on
the backward
inside edge and
on the ball of
the foot
James Cowling, Ice Link's
independent sports journalist
brings readers skating news from
around the globe
Well, the ISU's new scoring system is firmly in place
after a full year of use in its major competitions.
The results have been mixed and so have the
t's also being reported the Miki Ando, the former Junior
IWorld champion, and a gold medal contender for next
year's Olympic gold medal, has parted company with
reviews. Many, including two time Olympic Champion her coach Nobuo Sato, the father of 1994 world
Katarina Witt, said that the results from the European champion Yuka Sato, and will be working with Carol
Championships were dubious. There were questions Weiss Jenkins in the United States. Jenkins was the 1960
surrounding the win by Russian Irina Slutskaya. No one ladies' Olympic gold medallist. The report didn't
was more surprised by the win than Slutskaya herself. elaborate on the reasons for the change but another
She skated a dismal free programme. The biggest test report out of Japan says that the Japanese Skating
for the new system will be at next year's Winter Olympics Federation has sent a letter to magazine publishers
in Turin, Italy. I'm sure ISU President Ottavio Cinquanta asking them to refrain from excessive coverage of Ando,
already has his fingers crossed. The ISU has announced to protect her privacy. The letter stated that
that its pleased with the success of the new system, but "overheated" coverage of the 17-year-old high school
Mr Cinquanta has said it's up to the judges to do a good student could violate her privacy and damage her
job.
on Phenning, a former ISU officials who was recently
Rmade ineligible for his involvement in the World
Skating Federation, has put his name forward
emotionally. Perhaps a move to the US will keep her out
of the glossies in her homeland.
ce dancers Albena Denkova and Maxim Stavisky
Iof Bulgaria, the 2004 World silver medallists,
to be the the next president of the USFSA.
are looking for a new coach. They ditched
While Mr Phenning is a man with a great deal of
Alexei Gorshkov of Russia after their
experience, it will be interesting to see if the US
disappointing 5th place finish they have
will elect a man who the ISU has made ineligible
decided part company with him. They say he is
in its ranks. He was the referee in the pairs' event "too involved with the Russian skating federation."
at the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City in which a Gorshkov also Oksana Domnina and Maxim Shabalin who
judging controversy became the biggest scandal in were 8th at the Worlds and will likely take over as
Olympic history.
n Japan, McDonald's has hired Fumie Suguri as a
Ispokesperson for it's new vegetarian bagel sandwich.
It's signed the former World's bronze medallist to push its
Russia's number one couple when Tatiana Navka and
Roman Kostomarov eventually retire.
nce again, I still have a few copies left of Sonia
OBianchetti's book, Cracked Ice, Figure Skating's Inner
healthier message as the U.S. fast-food chain continues World. It really is a great read. Copies are £14.00 each
its turnaround after years of losses in the country. and that includes postage. You can reach me through
email at jamescowling1963@yahoo.co.uk.
BBiits nn''
piecees

Ice Link Issue 59 page 6
Senior men
1. Jon Eley (Mohawks)
2. Tom Iveson (Mohawks)
3. Paul Stanley (Mohawks)
4. Philip Brojaka (Nottingham)
5. Matthew Lindsay (Aldwych)
Masters
1. Guy Bushell. NISA
2. Brian Reid (Falkirk)
3. Alan Dobbie (Falkirk)
4. Keith Wright (Sheffield)
Pee Wee Girls
1. Jennifer Miller (Ayr)
2. Shelley Thomson (Ayr)
3. Samantha Inch (Ayr)
4. Alison Walker (Ayr)
5. Danielle Khan (Mohawks)
Senior Ladies
1. Sarah Lindsay (Aldwych)
2. Joanna Williams (Aldwych)
3. Alex Whelbourne (Nottingham)
4. Chenai Flack (Aldwych)
6. Donavon Russell (Nottingham)
7. Chris Hodgson (Mohawks)
8. Barry Barretto (Falkirk)
9. Stewart Logan (Ayr)
10. Liam Flaherty (Flintshire Flyers)
11. Adam Bateson (Flintshire Flyers)
5. Gary Khan (Mohawks)
6. Clive Smallman (Sheffield)
7. Billy McAuthur (Falkirk)
8. Brian Logan (Ayr)
6. Shannon Scott (Ayr)
7. Lesley Llewellyn (Mohawks)
8. Laura Chaston (Nottingham)
9. Laura McCormack (Mohawks)
10. Kathryn Thomson (Ayr)
11. Shannon Jones (Nottingham)
5. Gemma Cooper (Nottingham)
6. Toni Bark (Nottingham)
7. Louise Adby (Aldwych)
8. Vicky Lankertis (Nottingham)
9. Sarah Henderson (Nottingham)
skatesmart.com British Short
Masters
Guy Bushell
Senior Men
Jon Eley
Pee Wee Girls
Jennifer Miller
Senior Ladies
Sarah Lindsay
Rela
1. Nottingham A: (Paul Worth, Olive
Douglas, Philip Brojaka)
2. Mohawks A: (Tom Iveson, Paul S
NISA)
3. Aldwych A; (Ryan Broughton, Ma
Gerard Williams)
4. Aldwych B: (Joanna Williams, Stu
Chenai Flack )
Club Posi
1. Nottingham A; 2. Mohawks A ; 3
5. Nottingham B; 6. Mohawks B; 7
9. Nottingham; 10.Flintshire Flyers
A
than 76 competito
skatesmart.com British Sho
Championships, at the Nationa
the youngest competitor being ju
There were some very exciting race
the age categories.
In the Pee Wee Boys category, Jack W
Champion from 2004 had a very good co
Juvenile age category next season took th
(Mohawks) in silver and Tristan Adams (Nottm
In the Pee Wee Girls category the three distan
them from the Ayrshire Flyers club, Jennifer M
Samantha Inch (333m). After all the points had
Jennifer Miller. The Ayrshire Club took the top fo
very good group of young girls emerging onto the
The Juvenile Boys category was dominated by Step
Great Britain Development Squad, took first place
take the Overall title, Scott Anderson (Nottm) took
(Nottm) bronze. Charlotte Gilmartin (Mohawks) like
maximum points from the three distances, to take the
silver and Elise Christie (Falkirk) bronze.
The Junior category was very strong this year, the junio
range was 15 to 19 years. 15 competitors took part in
both the 500m and 1000m distances and second in
Anthony Douglas (Nottm) took the silver and Matthew W
The Masters category, which is for skaters over the age
has been competing in Canada for the past few years
Reid (Falkirk) took silver and Alan Dobbie (Falkirk) the b
Sarah Lindsay (Aldwych) and Joanna Williams (Aldwych
took first place in the 1500m, 1000m and 500m fi
distances, giving them the Overall Gold and silver me
still a Junior, took the Overall bronze medal.
In the men’s category Jon Eley (Mohawks) took first
give him maximum points and the Overall title,
Championships. Tom Iveson (Mohawks) took the Ov
bronze.
The Club Relay event was held again this year, this e
first time in many years and is proving to be very
doubled from last year with 10 teams from 6 clubs
Again the teams from the Nottingham, Mohawks a
Nottingham and Mohawks had a tremendous
emerging as the victors and Nottingham were s
determined to take their revenge, the race
between the teams from Nottingham and Mo
much for the Mohawks team and at around
began to pull away. Mohawks tried in vai
team of Paul Worth, Oliver Horsepool, A
their lead and crossed the line in first p
Photos of the skatesmart.com Britis
available at www.speedskatefalkir

y
Track Speed Champs 2005
r Horsepool, Anthony
tanley, Jon Eley, Guy Bushell
tthew Lindsay, Ian Upcott,
art Loughrey, Sarah Lindsay,
tions
. Aldwych A ; 4. Aldwych B;
. Sheffield; 8. Falkirk;
pril
2nd & 3rd
saw no fewer
rs attending the
rt Track Speed Skating
l Ice Arena Nottingham, with
st 8 years old.
s during the competition in all of
helbourne (Nottingham) defending
mpetition. Jack who moves up to the
e Overall Gold medal with Nathan Soles
) in bronze.
ces were won by three different girls all of
iller (500m), Shelley Thomson (222m) and
been totalled up the overall title went to
ur places in this category, and look to have a
National scene.
hen Chaston (Nottm). Stephen, a member of the
in all three distances, gaining maximum points to
the Overall silver medal and James Horsepool
wise dominated the Juvenile Girls category taking
Overall Gold medal, Sally Conway (Aldwych) took
r A and B categories race together and so the age
this category. Paul Worth (Nottm) took first place in
the 1500m and so took the Overall Gold medal,
ilson (Nottm) bronze.
of 35, was won by Guy Bushell (Mohawks) Guy, who
flew home and took all three distance finals, Brian
ronze.
) once again dominated the Ladies category. Sarah
nals with Joanna taking second place in all three
dals respectively, Alex Whelbourne (Nottm) who is
lace in the 500m, 1000m, 1500m and 3000m, to
this is Jon’s first season in the senior British
erall silver medal and Paul Stanley (Mohawks) the
vent was held at last years Championships for the
popular, this year the number of teams entering
taking part.
nd Aldwych clubs proved to be the strongest.
battle last year, which saw the Mohawks
econd. This year the Nottingham team were
was very close with the lead alternating
hawks, but the 45 laps proved to be too
9 laps to go the team from Nottingham
n to close the gap, but the Nottingham
nthony Douglas and Phil Brojaka, kept
lace.
h Short Track Championships are
k.com/gallery.
Juvenile Girls
Charlotte Gilmartin
Pee Wee Boys
Jack Whelbourne
Junior Men
Paul Worth
Juvenile Boys
Stephen Chaston
Photos courtesy
Alison Gilkes
Pee Wee Boys
1. Jack Whelbourne (Nottingham)
2. Nathan Soles (Mohawks)
3. Triston Adams (Nottingham)
4. Billy Simms (Mohawks)
5. Greg Ireland (Dundee)
6. Josh Cheetham (Nottingham)
Juvenile Boys
1. Stephen Chaston (Nottingham)
2. Scott Anderson (Nottingham)
3. James Horsepool (Nottingham)
4. Charles Horsepool (Nottingham)
5. Josh Oldfield (Flintshire Flyers)
6. Craig Miller (Ayr)
Junior Men
1. Paul Worth (Nottingham)
2. Anthony Douglas (Nottingham)
3. Matthew Wilson (Nottingham)
4. Oliver Horsepool (Nottingham)
5=. Gerard Williams (Aldwych)
5=. Ian Upcott (Aldwych)
7. Stuart Loughrey (Aldwych)
Juvenile Girls
1. Charlotte Gilmartin (Mohawks)
2. Sally Conway (Aldwych)
3. Elise Christie (Dundee)
4. Helena Jones (Flintshire Flyers)
Ice Link Issue 59 page 7
7. Nicholas Lynch (Nottingham)
8. Richard Wenborn (Nottingham)
9. Rhys Brown (Ayr)
10. Euan Taylor (Ayr)
11. James Anderson (Nottingham)
12. Josh Padget (Flintshire Flyers
8. Luke Smallman (Sheffield)
9. Ryan Broughton (Aldwych)
10. Ben Jones (Aldwych)
11. Adam Musson (Sheffield)
12. Ben Vuyko (Mohawks)
13. Lee Clarke (Flintshire Flyers)
14. Scott Anderson (Dundee)
15. Ian Oldfield (Flintshire Flyers)

Ice Link Issue 59 page 8
News
Update
National Ice Centre
The heart of the action
GOOD LUCK TO JODY & ALISHA
On behalf of everyone at the National Ice Centre
we would like to say good luck to Jody and
Alisha Annandale. The sisters have moved back
home to Hull and will now be skating at
Bradford Ice Rink. We wish them both all the
best for the future.
NEW COACH AT NIC
There’s a very warm welcome to Margaret
O’Neill who has started as a new coach at the
National Ice Centre.
Margaret brings with her 13 years of experience
and has - for the last five years - been at
Dundonald International Ice Bowl in Northern
Ireland.
Margaret coached the British ladies senior
Champion Jenna McCorkell for the first 8 years of
her career and was named BITA Young Coach of
the Year in 2001 and UTV Coach of the Year
‘Young Performers’.
Joining Margaret at the NIC is 16 year old skater
Karla Quinn who is the current British Junior
Ladies silver medallist and Amy Irwin, who is 14
years old and preparing for the Primary Test for
the Championships.
NOTTINGHAM SPEED SKATERS BAG FOUR
BRITISH TITLES
Nottingham speed skaters claimed four British
titles at the skatesmart.com British Short Track
Speed Skating Championships 2005.
An NIC informational feature
The event, held on April 2 - 3rd at the National
Ice Centre, saw 77 competitors taking part and
23 of the skaters were from Nottingham.
In the Pee Wee Boys (under 13 years old) Jack
Whelbourne claimed first place and in the
Juvenile Boys (under 15 years old) Stephen
Chaston also got the top spot. Paul Worth won
the Junior Boys (under 19 years old) and in the
relay the Nottingham A team – Paul Worth, Oliver
Horsepool, Anthony Douglas and Philip Brojaka –
came out as champions. Junior Champion Paul
Worth said: “This was a great end to the season
and has made me more focused for the
Olympics. Winning the individual was brilliant
and winning the relay was the icing on the
cake.”
Nottingham speed skaters also took
two second places, four third spots
and three fourth places.
Geoff Huckstep, Chief
Executive at the National Ice
Centre said: “It’s fantastic
to host the British
Championships at the
NIC and it’s a
tribute to all the
hard work of
the coaches and
skaters themselves, that
Nottingham has claimed so many British titles.”
SUCCESS FOR INTERNATIONAL SKATERS
The National Ice Centre in Nottingham was proud
to host the Nottingham Cup 2005 International
Synchronized Skating Competition from Friday
March 4th to Sunday March 6th 2005.
16 teams from 7 different nations took part in
the first international competition at the NIC. The
skaters came from as far a field as America,
Canada and Russia to take part in the event.
The Novice event was won by Ice Mates form
the USA – for Great Britain – Sparkle came in 5th
position, followed by Shadows in 6th and Ice
Precise in 8th.
Canada came out on top in the final of the Junior
competition with Ice Image taking first place.
The Icicles, who represented Great Britain, came
in 4th and it was the Russian team Paradise who
won the final of the Senior event. Storm – the
British team - was 4th.
A webcam was set up to take in all the action on
the ice as it happened. That ensured
competitors friends and families across the
world could keep up to date with how their
team and country was doing.
8000 people logged on to watch the skaters
and nearly 500 messages of good
luck were left for the competitors.
Chief Executive at the National Ice
Centre Geoff Huckstep said:
“It was a fantastic event
and a great pleasure to
welcome so many
competitors and their
NIC's Paul Worth - British
Junior Champion
families to
the NIC. It’s
fabulous that so
many people
were able to enjoy the
facilities we have on
offer here and in the
city of Nottingham.”
SPEED SKATERS FLY
THE FLAG FOR
BRITAIN
Great Britain’s speed
skaters have reached
new heights at the
World Team
Championships in
Korea.
The Men’s Short Track
team – who train at the National Ice Centre–
claimed sixth place in the competition at the
start of March.
The five competitors Jon Eley, Tom Iveson, Oliver
Horsepool, Phil Brojaka and Paul Stanley beat of
competition from 34 countries to make the
world finals.
National Coach Stuart Horespool said: “I’m
pleased on two counts; firstly the skaters did
well under pressure. Secondly I set them a target
of making the top six, something we as a country
had never done before, and we achieved this
target.”
NOTTINGHAMSHIRE SKATERS HEAD TO
SLOVENIA
Two Nottinghamshire skaters are hoping to do
their country proud.
Thomas Paulson and Amy Tanner – who both
train at the National Ice Centre - have been
picked to represent Great Britain at the Triglav
Trophy in Slovenia. They will be flying out on
Tuesday April 12th for the event.
The International figure skating competition will
Jubilant members of Nottingham's Shadows & Icicles Teams celebrate
after the British Championships. Both teams performed well representing
GB at the ISU Nottingham Cup and Spring Cup in Milan
see 17 year old Thomas competing in the Junior
event and 12 year old Amy in the Novices.
They’ll be putting on the performance of their
lives up against skaters from all over the world
including as far a field as Japan.
Thomas has skated for Great Britain before and
scooped a bronze medal in the British
Championships at the NIC in December. But for
Amy it’s her first time representing her country
after taking silver in the Novice ladies
championships in February.

COACHES
'Coaches Corner' is a regular feature of Ice Link
and gives full details of seminars, education
programmes and items of general interest both
for Coaches and skaters alike.
I am pleased to announce that scholarships for
the financial year 2005-06 are now available
towards the new level 1 Assistant Coach
Programme.
The scholarships are available at a reduced fee
of £80 for 20 successful candidates. Applicants
are required to complete an application form,
as justification for a scholarship. This will include
a section where you will be required to give
your personal reasons why you should be
awarded a scholarship.
All applications will be considered by a panel
made up of coaches from the NISA Coach
I know that you are all eagerly awaiting the
arrival of the new Coaching Structure, and its
preparation is well under way. However, in
order to ensure that we put in place a strong
and robust structure which will confidently carry
us forward without the need for constant
amendment, we need a little more time.
The Coach Education Steering group held a
meeting on Monday 4th April in order to further
discuss the development of each qualification. It
is intended that the structure will be developed
on a rolling programme, starting with Level 1.
Application forms for the NISA Level 1 Assistant
Coach programme are now available from the
NISA office, please register your interest with
Laura Hallam Laura.hallam@iceskating.org.uk or
Telephone: 0115 9888 063
Please be assured that although it has not been
possible for some of you to revalidate, this in no
way diminishes your Coaching positions as all
Level 1 Coaching Scholarships
New Coaching Structure Update
CORNER
Education Working Group. The 20 most worthy
applicants in the view of the panel will be
awarded their scholarships on completion of
their Level 1 Assistant Coach programme
application form. The full Level 1 Assistant
Coach programme application fee will remain at
£155 for all other candidates.
If you are interested in a scholarship, please
contact the NISA office for an application form
from laura.hallam@iceskating.org.uk or Tel: 0115
9888 063 Good luck with your applications
Amanda Hembrow - National Sport
Development Officer
Coaching qualifications will be recognised until
the new structure is in place. It is necessary, of
course, for you to ensure that you keep your
membership, First aid and insurance current
throughout this period of change. Also, that you
have returned all three forms from the Child
Protection Procedure and the Code of conduct
for Officials to the NISA office. Please note that
the License to Coach Scheme will still be
introduced, with effect from the 1st March 2006
In order to save the extraordinary amount of
time spent getting updated information to you
by telephone, E-mail or letter, I feel it would be
more appropriate to keep you up-dated on this
project by use of the NISA webpage. Please
check the coaching page of the website for
regular updates.
Amanda Hembrow - NISA National Sport
Development Officer
ATTENTION ALL COACHES, JUDGES & OFFICIALS - Child Protection
During December all coaches, judges and
officials were sent copies of our new Policies
Manual and Child Protection Procedures
document. Within these documents were a
number of self declaration forms which should
have been completed and returned to the NISA
office before 1st March 2005.
This date has now past and a number of
individuals have still to return their forms. All
three forms must be completed in order for you
to continue in your current capacity.
The forms are:
Statement of Acceptance of Code of Conduct
(page 18)
Self Declaration Form (page 24)
Statement of Acceptance of NISA Child
Protection Procedures (page 27)
GB Team
takes 6th at
Coaches
If you have not returned your forms you will not
be allowed to enter competitors for
competitions, tests or any other sanctioned NISA
events. There is also a danger that you public
liability insurance will also be invalidated.
Judges and Officials
Again, if you have not returned your form we will
not be able to use you at any NISA sanctioned
event and also the non-return may also delay the
payment of any outstanding expenses.
Please, as a matter of urgency, if you have not
already done so, please return your forms to the
NISA office. If you have mislaid your form, you
can download a copy of the relevant forms from
the policies or development section on the NISA
website www.iceskating.org.uk
Short Track
Update
World Team Champs
GB Team reaches top 6 target for first time
News
Results
Debate
Great Britain Men’s Short Track Speed Skating Team reached new heights with a 6th
place at the World Team Championships in Chuncheon, Korea on 5-6 March. Only the top
8 ranked National Teams from the 34 Counties that took part in this seasons World Cup
events qualified for the finals in Korea. Team GB had competed well all season to make the finals.
In the first round-robin event Team GB came
third (3rd) out of four (4) easily beating
European No2 Russia, this qualified Team GB for
the first time into the top six (6). The semi-finals
were a lot harder, the five man team of Jon Eley,
Tom Iveson, Oliver Horsepool, Phil Brojaka, Paul
Stanley, who train at the NIC Nottingham, skated
well but China and Japan progressed to the
final. The medals went to
Gold – Canada
Silver – Korea
Bronze – China
4th – Japan
5th – Italy
6th – Great Britain
7th – Russia
8th – France
National Coach Stuart Horsepool said “ I’m
pleased on two counts, firstly the skaters skated
well under the pressure, I set them the target of
top 6, something we as a country had never
done before, and secondly that we achieved
the target”.
being
beaten by the home country team 'Hot Shivers'.
The junior event was the largest with eight entries and
was of a very high standard. The Nottingham Ice
Centre Icicles skated enjoyable performances and will
have benefitted immensely from the experience. The
junior category was won by Vibe from Canada who
skated two very accomplished programmes.
This year's senior category appeared to have a fairly
low turnout of teams this year compared to previous
Ice Link Issue 59 page 9
THE 'SYNCHRO'
Basingstoke
"Sparkle" at
Update on
Synchro news
P
A
Milan Spring Cup by Mary Durell G
This years ISU synchronized skating competition, the 'Spring Cup' was held in Milan
during mid February at its usual location, the Palasesto Arena. There were four entries
from the UK spanning across the novice, junior and senior categories. E
The novice event was entered by five teams in total. seasons. Even so the competition was
Great Britain's representatives included Team Sparkle of an extremely high standard with this years world
from Basingstoke and the Nottingham Ice Centre champion silver medallists Team Surprise of Sweden
Shadows. For the Shadows it was their first ISU skating two impressive programmes to win the Gold.
international, nevertheless they skated well and did The Silver medal was taken by Team Berlin of Germany
themselves proud to finish 4th. Team Sparkle, who whose long programme was skated with grace and
could now be considered a fairly experienced
excellent technical ability. The team in third position
international team skated fantastically to win the silver was Miami University of the USA. Their programme
medal,
was possibly the most spectacular with
only
breath taking lifts
and
Team Sparkle
intricate movements in isolation.
The UK's only entry in the senior category was Storm of
Basingstoke Ice Skating Club. They skated well in both
programmes and were received very warmly by the
spectators.
As always this event was very well run. All the UK
teams appeared to enjoy their time in Milan and will
have gained a valuable experience and learnt from
the other teams at the event.
(Mary Durell is a member of Team Storm, Basingstoke)
Congratulations to Team Eclipse from Lee Valley on winning GOLD at an
Easter (non ISU) synchro competition in Holland
International Synchro stars dazzle at NIC
Teams from all over the world including Russia, Canada, the USA, France, Finland and Holland travelled
to compete in the Nottingham Cup, the first ISU international synchro event in the UK. Great Britain
fielded five teams from Bracknell, Nottingham and Basingstoke across all three categories.
The eight entries for the novice event included
the execution of difficult footwork, lifts
the current novice British Champions,
and free-skating moves at great speed,
Sparkle (Basingstoke) Shadows (NIC) and
was highly impressive by Russian
Ice Precise (Bracknell), and was
winners Team Paradise, a university
deservedly won by Ice Mates (USA).
team where as part of their schedule the girls
The junior event, contested by 4 teams,
was won by Ice Image (Canada). The Icicles of
train 5 days a week for 2 hours on-ice and 2 to 3
hours off-ice.
Nottingham Ice Centre had two clean skates and have As a member of Storm from Basingstoke I felt we
obviously become more confident as the season has skated 2 very enjoyable and clean skates and have
gone on.
improved as the season has progressed. It was really
The senior event was also only entered by four teams
but was of a very high standard. As a competitor in
this section it was
not possible to
watch the
entire
event
but
nice to be able to compete at the National Ice Centre
against other teams. The competition was a really
wonderful event with fantastic up to date facilities and
obviously a lot of hard work and planning went into it!
I am looking foreword to hopefully competing in this
event next season and with any luck, the success of
this first event will encourage more teams from all over
the world to compete!
Ice Image (CAN)
Paradise (RUS)
MMMaarryy DDuurreellll ssseennnddsss uuusss
tthhiiss ssskkaaatteer'''ss vvviiieeww ooofff
tthhee Noottttiinngghhamm CCuuupp
NOVICE
1. Ice Mates (USA)
2. Les Coccinelles (CAN)
3. Ice Fantasy (FIN)
4. Droopies (FRA)
5. Sparkle (GBR)
6. Shadows (GBR)
7. Ice Crystals (NED)
8. Ice Precise (GBR)
Photos courtesy Louvain Woodmass Photography www.lwphotography.co.uk
RESULTS
JUNIOR
Ice Mates (USA)
1. Ice Image (CAN)
2. Fraser Eclipse (USA)
3. Fond du lac Blades (USA)
4. Icicles (GBR)
SENIOR
Paradise (RUS)
2. Black Ice (CAN)
3. W Michigan Univ (USA)
4. Storm (GBR)

Ice Link Issue 59 page 10
SKATEWATCH
SKATEWATCH is independently written and produced by Lesley Reynolds and
is available on subscription. We are pleased to publish a selection of articles
from SKATEWATCH in Ice LInk, but if you wish to read the full in-depth
reports of skating events in Britain and abroad, then contact Lesley:
Tel: 01234 401315 Mob: 07831 863004 or e-mail: skatewatch@hotmail.com
Subscription for 6 issues only £5.50.
Luzhniki report
S ince
it is tradition to give a small
review of the arena, I thought I would
have to include a little passage on the
‘Luzhniki’.
Thankfully the arena itself was a pleasant
surprise. Whether by virtue of excessive
warnings, which had prepared me for the
worse, or simply that it was just not bad, I
am not sure. The organisation was rather
smooth apart from people being let in late
and trying to find their seats during the
performances! The press centre was much
Brits Abroad
It was quite exciting to be at a
championship where there was a
real British team.
In the ladies Jenna McCorkell gave us
flashes of her full potential with a clean
skate in the short programme to
‘Meditation’. She landed a beautiful lutz
combination and solo triple loop. Despite
some changes between Europeans and
Worlds, Jenna still failed to achieve any
level 2’s or 3’s in her spins, something she
desperately needs for next year. The system
might not be great but one has to work
with it. In the ‘Swan Lake’ free Jenna
started beautifully but went on to pop three
jumps, losing some very valuable points.
She dropped to 22nd overall, a position that
doesn’t quite reflect her real talent. It would
be great to have her skating to something
more dynamic next year.
John Hamer did not make into the final
but in the men’s event that is no
embarrassment. Thomas Verner and Silvio
Smalun did not even make it out of
qualifying; such is the depth at World level.
John’s enthusiasm and energy were a
breath of fresh air. In his qualifier to
‘Victory’ by Hardiman he landed an
excellent triple flip-triple toe and two other
triples including the lutz. His great
Lesley Reynolds
reports on the Moscow
World Champs Arena
better equipped than in other more
‘western’ cities. The shuttles ran on time
and so did the press conferences. On the
food front, there was no Jamie Oliver
gastronomy but for arena’s; it was the
acceptable small sandwiches and fattening
chocolate were everywhere. At least the
kiosks were open for the early morning
practices. Can’t comment on the ladies loos
I’m afraid but the men’s were fine! A 7/10
for the Luzhniki overall. Would I go to
Moscow again? You must be joking!
Lesley Reynolds
comments on
Moscow
footwork was rewarded with a level 2. His
modern short to music by Jarre was
marred by a mistake on the combination
but it was his vibrancy and presentation
that one will remember most.
John and Sinead Kerr flew the British
flag very high with an astounding 12th
place beating the likes of Kulikova-Novikov.
It is in the compulsories where they have
become unrecognisable from last year.
Their blues was smooth and controlled.
They gave their best showing in the original
dance where they captured the ballroom feel
perfectly. The judges were so impressed
they placed them 11th in that portion
above Gregory-Petukhov, America’s
number two couple! The protocol showed
that one of the judge’s went as high as 7.25
for interpretation, an incredible mark at
World level. The Justin Timberlake free was
just as enjoyable but perhaps not as
successful as last year’s routine. It was a
tough choice to interpret and the one
criticism would be that they struggled to
consistently skate to the beat. Nevertheless
the result was superb and taking into
account five or six couples seem likely to
retire next year, the sky is the limit for the
Kerrs.
Opinions expressed in SKATEWATCH & other independent contributions are not necessarily those of NISA
MERCIAN ICE DANCE CLUB
Invite you to join them on the occasion of
A Workshop with Master Coach
JOAN SLATER
Including an
Ice Dance Social
Skating to live music by EDDIE RUHIER
at
COVENTRY SKYDOME ARENA,
Croft Road, Coventry, CV1 3AZ Telephone: 02476 630693
on
SATURDAY 7th MAY 2005, 4.30.pm to 7.30.pm
PROGRAMME
4.30pm to 5.00pm Dance to the music of Eddie Ruhier
5.00pm to 6.30pm Workshop with Joan Slater (The workshop is to help
all Ice Dancers)
6.30pm to 7.30pm Dancing again to the music of Eddie Ruhier
7.00pm onwards Drinks and food available in the Bar
refreshments not included in the cost
PRICE: Payable on the door £15 PER SKATER / £ 1 PER SPECTATOR
IMPORTANT YOU RESERVE YOUR PLACE, CALL OR EMAIL your details as follows:
Name, Club and Contact Number, plus CURRENT STANDARD,
(Joan needs to know skating standards to organise relevant coaching for each group)
email: mercian.icedanceclub@btopenworld.com
www.mercian-icedanceclub.com
Chairman MIDC - Mobile 07836 200963
2005 NISA National Events Diary
Jul 4-6th 1st NJS Competition Sheffield
26-27th British Solo Ice Dance Championships 2005 Nottingham
Aug 5-9th NISA Cup iceSheffield
20-21st Sk8scotland Adult Championships (tbc BAC Qualifier) Dumfries
Sep 14-16th 2nd NJS Competition Nottingham
Oct tbc British Adult Championships Nottingham
15-21st
Nov 29
Sk8scotland Open Championships 2005 (inc 3rd NJS Competition) Dumfries
- Dec 3rd British Ice Figure & Dance Championships iceSheffield
2004-5 Domestic Figure & Dance Diary (& Regional Tests)
This Diary is intended to provide a summary of the Open Events registered with NISA. Please refer to the NISA website for full
details and contacts, including status re Announcements & Permits.
Date Event Referee Contact
Apr 24th Oxford Adult Opens
24-25th Bracknell Dance Opens S Hanrahan S Truby competitions@bracknell-ice-skating-club.co.uk
26-29th Bracknell Free Opens S Hanrahan/V Riley S Truby competitions@bracknell-ice-skating-club.co.uk
Apr 30-1st Kyle Open M Worsfold R Otterson rosemaryotterson@hotmail.com
May 2nd iceSheffield Solo Dance C Robinson M Wilson skateuk@aol.com
8th Deeside Solo Dance C Yates L Mcnulty lynmac1961@hotmail.com
13th Dundonald - N Ireland POSTPONED
14th Dumfries Solo Dance N Grimshaw A Ferguson andyferguson@tiscali.co.uk
14th Lee Valley S Hanrahan M Hunt mary@mary70.wanadoo.co.uk
20th Oxford Opens M Chapman J Spiller judithspiller@hotmail.com
22-24th National Squad Training (iceSheffield) C Barker (NISA Office) 0115 988 8070
23-24th Kent (Gillingham) S Lindsey B Smith ice@gillinghamidfsc.fsnet.co.uk
27th Murrayfield Regional Tests (Pre Novice, Novice & Primary only)
29th Chelmsford RIDL & Social 5:15 - 9:15pm B Bone tel: 01206 842320
Jun 1-3rd Blackpool Opens M Mallinson alison.walsingham@bpbltd.co.uk
3-4th Nottingham Solo Dance C Robinson J Buckland julie.buckland@curtisparkinson.com
6-8th Milton Keynes M Chapman D Moulden deb.moulden@tesco.net
12th Queens RIDL 5:00 - 8:00pm D Arbiter
17-19th Deeside L Littler J Lloyd-Hazlegreaves m.lloyd7@ntlworld.com
20-21st Guildford W Clay R Wheeler roberta@wheller3.demon.co.uk
21st Romford Regional Tests (Pre Novice, Novice & Primary only)
23-24th Bracknell Adult Opens S Hanrahan S Truby competitions@bracknell-ice-skating-club.co.uk
28-1st Basingstoke Opens D Stevens J Horsfield thehorseys@aol.com
Jul 7th Telford M Chapman L Hadley-Lloyd ljhlloyd@supanet.com
9-12th Hull
Rescheduled Dundee M Worsfold J Urquhart icyjac@btinternet.com
31st World Ice Challenge Slough
Aug tbc Murrayfield Regional Tests (Pre Novice, Novice & Primary only)
27-28th Ayr A Findlay F Scobie scobie4@gotadsl.co.uk
Sep 4-6th Bristol (BAC Qualifier) C Yates/D Stevens J Murch joanemurch@hotmail.com
12-13th Chelmsford Opens S Hanrahan A Willey anna@sporty.demon.co.uk
19th Swindon Open D Stevens L Wilkinson leywilkinson@aol.com
25-26th Welsh Championships
26-27th Planet Ice Coventry
Oct 10th Milton Keynes Regional Tests (Pre Novice, Novice & Primary only)
Nov tbc Deeside Regional Tests (Pre Novice, Novice & Primary only)
13-15th National Squad Training (iceSheffield) C Barker (NISA Office) 0115 988 8070
Dec tbc Swindon Regional Tests (Pre Novice, Novice & Primary only)
News from Planet Ice Basingstoke
Basingstoke Ice Skating Club won the 2005 Edges & Bligh annual inter-rink competitions.
The team of Rhianne Cotterill, Helen Foster, Fiona Piggott, Lizzie Long and Sarah Howard-
Jones pictured plus Kerry Hansen and Laura Webb won 4 golds from 6 classes plus a silver
and bronze medal to secure victory over Bracknell, Streatham and the Isle of Wight. Edges: Bas
19; Brac 17; IOW 11. Bligh: Bas 25; Stre 23; Brac 22; IOW 12.
Six skaters represented
Basingstoke in the British Pre-
Novice & Novice Championships
Laura Webb and Matthew
Kershaw (pairs); Helen Clark,
Laura Freeman and Lucy-Anne
Walker (novice) and Charles
Howard-Jones (pre-novice).
The senior and novice
synchronized skating teams,
following their success at the
British, competed in two
internationals at home and
abroad with Team Sparkle
winning the silver medal in Milan.
This year 55 standard Nisa tests
have been successful from Novice
to Inter Silver Field Moves; Level 8
Free & Level 9 Dance. Victoria
Caine passed the Primary Long
test. Twenty medals, including eight gold
medals (Keita Sung, Ben Snowball, Rachel Blake,
Gemma Sanders, Liam Kayley, Lizzie Long,
Matthew Kershaw and Laura Freeman) were won
at the Romford and Britstol Opens.
The Junior Skating Club annual Spin, Spiral &
Jump competition produced 5 gold medallists
Rebecca Tincey, Tiera Mussett, Charlotte Dodd,
Pippa Hooker & Coral Mussett.
Photo courtesy Basingstoke Gazette
Adult Ice Dance Social - Murrayfield, Edinburgh 11th June 2005
An ice dance social event for skaters aged
16 years and over (under 16's also
welcome if you have Level 5 test) is
planned for Edinburgh's Murrayfield Ice
Rink.
Dance yourself to exhaustion on the ice
from 5.00pm - 7.00pm on Saturday 11th
June 2005 then relax and enjoy a post
event buffet - featuring a fabulous cabaret
act for your further entertainment!
Tickets available, price £10 (including buffet) in
advance from Alan McIver, 59 Durham Square,
Edinburgh EH15 1PP
Tel: (D) 0131 661 5962 (Ev) 0131 669 4891
e-mail: mciveralan@hotmail.com
Closing date 3rd June - BOOK NOW
Visitors are also invited to skate the Sunday
Dance Club from 10.00am - 12.00noon on the
12th June (Visitors £3.50)

Novice Champs Photo
Jessica Potter &
Simon Pougher
Daniel King
Jack Matthews
Photos courtesy Louvain Woodmass Photography
www.lwphotography.co.uk
Pre-Novice Men: 1 Jack MATTHEWS 2 Joshua SPONG 3 Harry
MATTICK 4 Stuart URQUHART 5 Charles HOWARD-JONES 6
Edward HAMMOND
Novice Pairs: 1 Abbi OMELIA / David WATSON 2 Bethany
HITCHMOUGH / Alexander DEMETRIOU 3 Jennifer REYNOLDS /
Benjamin MCNULTY 4 Victoria CARROLL / Dean MCCALL 5
Lauren HILL / Daniel AGGIANO 6 Laura WEBB / Matthew
KERSHAW 7 Shanon DAVIS / Stuart URQUHART 8 Laura
GARRIGAN / John INGLIS 9 Elenor WARN / Joshua SMITH 10
Melissa GREENLAND / Robert PURDUE
Novice Dance: 1 Jessica POTTER / Simon POUGHER 2 Tara
SEPHTON / Nathan STOWE 3 Melissa CHAN / Tobias WALLIS
Abbi Omelia & David Watson
Rebecca
Mayo
Photo
album album
2005 2005
Sophie Kent
Pre-Novice Ladies: 1 Sophie KENT 2 Sasha CROMPTON 3
Sophie NORSWORTHY 4 Natasha MCKAY 5 Ashley
WATERHOUSE 6 Jodi EASSON 7 Daisy LLOYD-HAZLEGREAVES 8
Chloe WALKER 9 Lindsay BALFOUR 10 Alison WALKER 11 Ellie
UPTON 12 Rhiannon GODFREY
Novice Ladies: 1 Rebecca MAYO 2 Amy TANNER 3 Laura KEAN
4 Marissa HENDERSON 5 Kirsty RICHARDSON 6 Shelly
THOMPSON 7 Helen CLARK 8 Toni MURRAY 9 Kirstie
ROBERTSON 10 Leila BUTLER 11 Abi OMELIA 12 Anastasia
VINNIKOVA 13 Jennifer MOON 14 Nikola MCVEY 15 Hazel
DUCKWORTH 16 Laura FREEMAN 17 Kelsey DREWERY 18
Jessica ROEBUCK 19 Stephanie TELFER 20 Lucy-Anne WALKER
21 Jade MCLEAN 22 Alisha ANNANDALE 23 Grace KERR
Novice Men: 1 Daniel KING 2 Lawrence EVANS 3 Sam
EDWARDS 4 Steven WHITE 5 Phillip HARRIS 6 James HARDY
Ice Link Issue 59 page 11
At a meeting earlier this year of the Home Countries Consultative
news
Forum the Chairs of Sk8scotland, Welsh Ice Skating Association, NI
Ice Skating Association and NISA, one of the ideas agreed was to
create a "Home Countries News" page in Ice LInk. Sk8scotland
members, in a recent survey, also agreed. To start off this idea, we
are pleased to introduce 'Sk8scotland News'. In future issues we'd
like to add stories, news and features from the other Home
Countries - so get working on your contributions!
Scottish Short Track Champs visit Dundee
This year the Scottish Short Track Championships were held in Dundee Ice Arena on 13th March 2005.
Scottish Short Track championships have been held in 15 different ice rinks, but this was the first time
it has been held in the new Dundee ice arena.
The senior champion is awarded the “Fitzroy Smith track records is Elise Christie with 7 over two
Trophy”, and was won this year by Ian Cavin on his categories. The youngest ever competitor in the
home rink. This trophy has been won 13 times by Scottish Junior Championship was Frazer Logan in last
skaters from Ayr Speed Skating Club, 12 by Falkirk, 8 year’s competition. Frazer was just 5 years 4 months
by Crossmyloof, 3 by Club Rapide, 3 by Dundee, 1 by and 1 day!
Murrayfield and 1 by London Aldwych.
Ian Cavin (Dundee) has also won the Fitzroy Smith
Trophy for the last two years, so this year's victory
means he retains his title. The skater with the most
wins in this competition is Archie Marshall with 8 titles.
Speed skating was so popular in the 1950’s that
Paisley Ice Rink had two clubs, Paisley Speed Skating
Club and Club Rapide.
The first Scottish Championship was raced over 1 mile
for the “John Clark Challenge Trophy” at Crossmyloof in
Glasgow on May 1, 1937 and was won by W. Fullerton
in a time of 3.08.6
The Scottish Relay title for the “William Fullerton”
trophy was first competed for on May 3, 1947 at
Crossmyloof over a distance of 3 miles and was won
by Paisley in a time of 8.46.0
The two clubs with the most success in the Scottish
Relay are Falkirk (Stirling) with 17 titles and Ayr with Back row - Alan Dobbie, Ian Cavin and Barrie Barretto,
12. This year, the title was won by Stirling.
Front Row Murray Cochrane, Greg Ireland, Euan Taylor
The skater who currently holds the most Scottish short
Short Track debuts at Aberdeen Linx
Sunday 10th April 2005 will go down in the history books as the day some of Britain's fastest skaters
took to the ice at Aberdeen's fabulous beachfront Linx Arena. In a first for the City of Aberdeen, over
twenty of Scotland's top Short Track Speed Skaters entered into battle on the ice in a fast and furious
inter-club racing competition.
Aberdeen Lord Provost pictured with Alan Dobbie,
Elise Christie and Barrie barreto. The Trophy was
sponsored by Rune Tulloch of Ice Cool Sports
Inverness is repeating the success of their
2004 Summer Synchro Camp once again,
with a camp set for August 1st - 4th 2005.
Last year, the Inverness teams welcomed over
40 skaters to their camp including Basingstoke's
Senior British Champions, Team Storm, to a week
long highland experience, both on and off the
ice. In addition to enjoying plenty of ice time,
the skaters were treated to a memorable trip in
search of 'Nessie' on Loch Ness, and a genuine
highland ceilidh. With Synchro skating now in its
fourth year up in the Highland Capital City,
As part of its development strategy,
Sk8scotland is hoping to create a more
meaningful event for adults throughout
the UK, by hosting a separate Scottish Adult
Championships at Dumfries on the 20-21st
August 2005.
For the past 4 years, the Scottish adult events
have been incorporated into the main
Sk8scotland Open Championships in October,
however being during a weekday, and with little
opportunity for social events, it has been
decided that a separate event, hopefully to
include social ice dancing, practice ice and an
off-ice social - perhaps a Scottish Ceilidh, should
prove much more popular with adults from all
And in addition to the experts, there were also a
number of "come-and-try" races for local beginners,
with a huge part of the fun being the on-ice training
session led by Archie Marshall, Sk8scotland's director
for Speed Skating. In fact nearly 20 local skaters aged
from 8 - 15 years joined in - many being youngsters
who normally only skate on the public sessions. The
two hour afternoon event was watched by Aberdeen's
Lord Provost John Reynolds, who kindly presented the
trophy for the inter-club competition.
The event attracted quite a bit of media interest as
well - with Radio Scotland in the rink, a 3 minute
feature was broadcast on the Monday morning news,
while local press carried a large article in the Press &
Journal Aberdeen's main daily newspaper.
Chas Simpson, the Linx Arena's manager commented -
"this has been a huge success, and we will be making
this an annual event"
Inverness to repeat summer Synchro Camp
Inverness now boasts no fewer than four
Synchro Teams, and last Christmas they were
invited to open the Edinburgh
Winterwonderland ice rink with a 15 minute ice
extravaganza!
So if you are interested in joining in the fun, and
learning a lot more about Synchro, give Judy
Clinton a call on 07747 194793 or e-mail
judy_skate@yahoo.co.uk. Synchro Teams,
smaller groups and individual skaters alike, this
camp will appeal to you all.
Sk8scotland to hold Adult Championships
over the UK. It is intended that the event will
include dance competitions for solo and
couples skaters, free skating, pairs and
exhibition events. The closing date for the event
will be Monday 25th July.
It is hoped that this event, being in August,
would not only appeal to adult skaters, but
represent a perfect opportunity to combine
with a family break in the beautiful holiday
region of Dumfries & Galloway. The event will
also be a qualifying event for the NISA British
Adult Championships (accreditation pending).
Full details of this event are on the NISA
website.

Ice Link Issue 59 page 12
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