European Championships 2008, Zargreb Croatia

We had been down on the list as TBA even though NISA should of known 2months in advance that we were the only British team at nationals. Its not a big deal but for us it implies our federation don’t pay attention and have little faith in us, which could affect us getting top positions. We put it behind us and just tried to be relaxed, just do our best and show why they shouldn't doubt us again. It was the first major event with Mariusz by our side, he gives a great quiet confidence to you, warm ups and skating alike he makes you feel special so you want to repay him with being your best. In practice's we were doing full runthroughs, I think it was only us and the Croatians who did. It's very tough mentally and physically to do full runthroughs in practice at a major event like this, any mistakes could play on your mind until the big day. This is why most teams save energy in practices just get into the ice to do it all on the competition, but we needed to show our improvements with high energy and consistency.

What a start short was just a dream, everything we did how it has been in Torun pushing to everything, holding elements, not rushing. A throw triple loop that was just beautiful, Maxim Trankov said in the draw after that it was the best out of all in the whole short. We've put so much effort into improving the consistency of the throws to see one like that in such an important event is fantastic! Your whole season's work paid back in full. So we were lying in 7th, which was 6 places on last year as we were 13th in the short. We had an interview that evening with non other than Sue Barker for the BBC which was a great treat. Not being to experienced at interview's he asked some very hard questions that we have to ask ourselves now and again, but i'm sure it makes good tv.

Long was just as good as short in my opinion, apart from side by side jumps it was a very technically difficult programme. We skated with passion and enjoyed the whole time on the ice which seemed to also please the judges as we placed 5th in the long with only 1 point of 5th overall. Its an amazing achievement for us, 6th in Europe, nobody can take that away from you. We work hard so I'm sure there will be other achievements that are more impressive still to come, here's to an exciting future!