BISC would like to congratulate our new British Solo Ice Dance Champions –

Bethany Armitage, Advance Novice Ladies and James Smith, Advance Novice Men.

Congratulations also go to Leon McIntosh who was 3rd in Juvenile Men.

There were some very close results and our skaters did the club proud. Thank you everyone! Please see attached report for further details.

We would also like to mention that Bethany Armitage finished second in the Welsh Championships in May, narrowly missing 1st place.

 BISC

British Ice Dance Championships 2013

Bracknell Now Boasts Two 2013 British Champions!

This year Bracknell sent 20 skaters to the British Ice Dance Championships in Sheffield.  Many were competing at this event for the first time whilst others are becoming regular British Championship competitors.  Whilst all skaters have done well to qualify and then compete at this event the Advanced Novice classes were particularly exciting for Bracknell. 

In Advanced Novice Ladies Bethany Armitage had been doing well all year and went to the Championships knowing that she was in with a good chance of getting a medal if she could hold her nerve and skate to the best of her abilities.  She won both the pattern dance classes (Tango and Blues) outright giving her a 1.63 point lead over Rebecca Clarke of Streatham going into the Free Dance.  Beth then drew 16^th to skate, first in the last warm-up group, with Rebecca skating 22^nd and last.  Beth skated her Free Dance beautifully and scored an impressive 41.98, maintaining her first place but with five top placed skaters still to go.   Rebecca had consistently skated a good Free Dance throughout this season and skated strongly on the day, scoring 42.46 for her Free Dance and giving her first place for this segment.  However this was not enough to take the Championship and Bethany Armitage became the Advanced Novice Ladies British Dance Champion.

Not to be outdone James Smith skating in the Mens section of Advanced Novice also was crowned British Champion after a nail-biting finish to the Men’s competition.  James had attained 3^rd place in both of his pattern dances (Tango and Blues) behind Dominic Barter of Sheffield and Jack Osman of Slough.   The competition was very close and coming into the Free Dance it was possible that any one of them could take the lead.  James was last to skate and performed his Free Dance in a dramatic, and at times heart-stopping, manner.   It seemed to take an age for the judges to finalise his score whilst he and Lucine waited in the ‘kiss and cry’ area, but when it came through it was worth the wait.  His score of 36.61 took him through to win both the Free Dance and the Championship.

A special mention must also be made of :

• Leon McIntosh competing in the Juvenile Mens category as he placed 3^rd overall, gaining a medal at his first British Championships.

• Chloe Arthur also competing in the Advanced Novice Ladies category, whose final score was just 0.07 of a mark off 3^rd place.

• Beth Madgwick who despite the huge disappointment of having to withdraw with an ankle injury was hugely supportive of the rest of the team.

A full set of Bracknell results are below –

Juvenile Ladies (25 competitors) Elin Griffiths 7^th, Sabrina Obray 11^th, Lauren Younge 15^th, Eloise Simmons 20^th, Emily Phillips 21^st, Sophie Phillips 25^th

Juvenile Mens  (7 competitors) Leon McIntosh 3^rd, Jayin Panesar 4^th 

Basic Novice Ladies  (27 competitors) Cerys Goddard 18^th, Emily Wong 20^th, Jemima Whelan 23^rd, Martha Bryant 25^th

Advanced Novice Ladies (21 competitors) Bethany Armitage 1^st, Chloe Arthur 4^th, Christie Hughes 12^th, Beth Madgwick WD

Advanced Novice Men (7 competitors) James Smith 1^st

Junior Ladies (18 Competitors) Franchesca Stevens 11^th, Kaya Dewulf 18^th

Senior Ladies (10 competitors) Hannah Hetebrij 7^th