Bracknell Ice Skating Club Newsletter - November 2004

Wishing Our Skaters a Successful Championship

Five club members will be competing at the British Championships in Nottingham on December 1-4.

Simon Waller, 17, will be the first BISC member for many years, and the first ever “home-grown” Bracknell skater, to compete in the Junior Men's Championship..

Tamsyn Pack, 14, and Richard Boaden, 16, who, like Simon, learned to skate and have always trained at Bracknell, will be competing in the primary ice dance championship again after winning bronze last year, while the 2004 novice ice dance champions, Rebecca Forsyth, 13, and Christopher Hockaday, 15, compete in their first primary championship. They all had good skates in their last competitions before the championships.

Simon, coached by Jon Bonny, came third in the iceSheffield Open on October 12 after a problem with one of his boots resulted in him pulling out part way through the long programme.

He put the disappointment behind him in the Scottish Junior Championship the following weekend when he came third of six in the short programme. Although he skated a good long programme, very close marking meant he placed sixth overall.

This year's junior men's championship is expected to be very close but now that Simon is beginning to land all the triple jumps, and a triple-triple combination, he is optimistic about his chances, having previously just missed out on medals at novice and primary level.

Tamsyn and Richard who, like Rebecca and Christopher, are coached by David Phillips and Lucine Chakmakjian, won bronze in a British primary championship qualifying competition at the iceSheffield event despite Richard having an ear infection. The couple have skated together for four years. They won bronze in the British Novice Couples Ice Dance Championship in 2002 and 2003, and bronze in the British Primary Couples Championship last December.

This is the second year Rebecca and Christopher have skated as a couple. After just 11 weeks together they won bronze in last year's British novice championship and went on to win the Welsh novice championship last September.

This year they won the British novice championship and moved up to compete at primary level. They qualified for the British championship when they passed their primary competitive dance tests during the Welsh Championships in Cardiff on October 24-25.

Tamsyn and Richard won bronze in the Welsh primary qualifying class when they came third in the blues, third in the tango and third in the free dance while Rebecca and Christopher came sixth in each compulsory dance, fifth in the free dance and sixth overall. This meant they also won silver in the Welsh Primary Championship for which Tamsyn and Richard were ineligible.

“The performances and results of both couples were very good,” David Phillips said. “Both beat a prominent couple from Nottingham for the first time and their marks were among their highest ever. It was a successful two days of competition that promises well for the finals.”

BISC wishes them all every success at the championships and hopes that many club members will be able to travel to Nottingham to support them.

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