My favorite competition of the year, I suppose until we go Olympics it'll be the biggest event we've done. It was our 3rd senior Worlds and we had prepared the best we possibly could, turning down 3 shows with Champions on ice (staring Plusenko) to focus on being at our very best. We decided to drive from Poland with Mariusz and Dorota which for us was a first. A ferry from Germany to Sweden, with a cabin so we could sleep and got to see lots of countryside whilst driving there! We arrived at Goteborg a quiet harbour town nice and relaxed ready for our final event.
My parents were coming out with some friends and the president of our new club Axel Mr Marek Kalisek, not that we get to see them a lot at competitions but was still a little upset Stacey's mum couldn't afford to come when she'd not seen us skate all season. Stacey didn't seem too bothered, we spent most our time on quiet walks to a nice little cafe or eating in a fantastic little Italian. We have all our food provided by ISU but sometimes you need to get away from the hustle and bustle of the other 200 competitors with however many coaches and team leaders on top of that. Lets put it this way in such a competitive sport you need big boney elbows to get the last piece of cake.
Practise's went really well i was very happy, consistent to the last. It all fell nicely for us, we only had one skate at the practice rink compared to ladies and men who were lucky if they got a practice on the main arena. But the pairs practice rink was rather interesting, we had to get a bus to the warm up area and the ice machine had a plug attached like a hoover, I'd never seen it before. Again full run throughs, felt strong and powerful really waiting to make a good impression, which in the short it looked like we did. A slight touchdown on the throw and a slip by me in the step but very strong lifts and twist put us in 13th place, again 6 place's higher than the short the previous year so we were very pleased. In the long we just didn't seem to have the magic that was there at Europeans, throws didn't go, lifts and twist downgraded so we ended in 15th, which is still an improvement on 17th from last year but we should of held on to 13th.
All in all a good finish to a topsy turvey season. You never know what will happen when you change coaches, you may struggle to adapt to the new techniques and it could take a long time to see improvements. We finished Worlds being strong potential for the future though, and that's good enough for me right now. Lets just wait and see what happens next season shall we!
Sunday, 13 July 2008
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!
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!
Eric Bompard Grand Prix, Paris France
So as Mariusz had to be in a technical panel the same week Dorota came with us to Paris. After skate America we were pumped to amend our faults from our long and achieve this years personal best. Traffic in the city was so bad it took 3 hours from airport to hotel, which I was told should only of been 30minutes. This was caused because of public transport strikes within the city and most of France. Luckily the hotel was right next to the impressive rink at Bercy, and the centre of Paris a 30 minute walk.
In practice we were a little shakey, we managed to settle in the following days but mentally we were a little off put. Silly things like missing the short lift in practice when its been totally solid in Torun, this transferred in to the lift in the short programme having trouble going up. Then when the lift settled we finished it off only to find I did too many turns, which means -2 for illegal element and no score for a level 4 Axel lasso in affect we lost 10 points in total for a programme that's worth 45 is a big problem.
So long came, and pushing out of our starting position my left trouser strap pinged loose. I thought, its just one of those weeks! From start to end I was thinking about my strap. It was an average long in the end, where we placed 7th but ended 8th overall. In all it was a good lesson for us but an end to our disappointing Grand Prix campaign. We just went home, and did what we always do, work hard so we do it better next time!
In practice we were a little shakey, we managed to settle in the following days but mentally we were a little off put. Silly things like missing the short lift in practice when its been totally solid in Torun, this transferred in to the lift in the short programme having trouble going up. Then when the lift settled we finished it off only to find I did too many turns, which means -2 for illegal element and no score for a level 4 Axel lasso in affect we lost 10 points in total for a programme that's worth 45 is a big problem.
So long came, and pushing out of our starting position my left trouser strap pinged loose. I thought, its just one of those weeks! From start to end I was thinking about my strap. It was an average long in the end, where we placed 7th but ended 8th overall. In all it was a good lesson for us but an end to our disappointing Grand Prix campaign. We just went home, and did what we always do, work hard so we do it better next time!
Skate America Grand Prix, Reading USA
It was an early start from Torun, picked up at 4.15am by the president of our new club Axel. It was a long 3hr drive over bumpy small roads, so for me no sleep but Stacey was well away. When we hit Warsaw it was heavy traffic too but we had loads of time to make our flight. Flying to Frankfurt first then on to Philadelphia, where we had to wait an hour for the Air France flight with French team and judge on board. Reading was a few hours drive from the airport but was so worn out I slept on the way there and back so didn’t really notice how long. In total it was a 21hr trip, which is tough even when you are just sitting around. We checked in then went straight for accreditation which is normal protocol, but getting your picture card (that’s used every day to identify you) taken after that kind of a trip is always scary! Luckily it was 9pm by the time we got to the rooms we just fell asleep, jet lag didn't really hit us there after that. Previous long trips we‘d arrived, like China at mid day and fall asleep, then our body clocks were off for the whole comp. At 5.30am I woke up, looked at the alarm and thought damn! Japan last year was 3am every morning but its still frustrating, because it only happens until you‘ve skated then you sleep till you want.
We were put into the Paris wing of the Sheraton hotel which was freaky as the next morning we were given our 2nd Grand Prix, the Eric Bompard Trophee in Paris France. We felt bad that Mariusz couldn’t get the free food that the skaters got so we went in search of Starbucks. We got directions from the front desk but took a wrong turn somewhere and it took us over an hour of walking to get 5mins from the hotel. Oh well! First practice went really well, we did basically a full long run through as good as we could do it. It was good because our world ranking points were high and ended up in the top group for the short programme. It was a plus because we didn’t have to draw to see where we skate and in the second group we got a lie in on morning practice.
Short went well, just a few points behind both US team's which is nothing when it comes to a long programme, which was strange as I thought Mark and Amanda's short was way better than it got marked and this was skate America. After a good solid long at Oberstdorf that sealed 6th place for us, we were looking for the same here. But on the practice the morning of the long Stacey came down from throw loop with her blade going straight through her thumb, she didn't realise at first and we were mid run through so she was thinking just try and shake off a nasty fall, then she looked at her finger, saw the bone then blood started pouring out of it!
I didn't know this and she kind of looked at me with sorry eye's as Mariusz was rushing her to first aid. So i tried to do a bit of on ice work while i still had a bit of time, few jumps and spins and then got curious to where Stacey was. I came to first aid and she fainted on the bed, I didn't know I had that effect on her! She came round quick and felt super crappy, she lay for a while worrying more about missing practice than the mess her hand was in. It was held together with glue and guase, she had a big argument with the doctor about needing stitches, he eventually gave in (Stacey is very persuasive) and bandaged her up really well.
So, we slept the whole day trying o shrug off the whole incident, we didn't go all that way to pull out now. We got to the rink for the long in good time as ever, the doctor re-bandaged Stacey's thumb and got on with our warm up. Unfortunately Stacey struggled to hold even basic lasso and just couldn't push on twist and this is just off ice. So we got on the ice not feeling so great but the programme went surprisingly well... Until, the last lift went up and Stacey just couldn't put any pressure on her hand, the lift came down after one rotation like a throw! She didn't fall luckily but we don't get the 6.5+ points for the lift, but we only had step and pair spin left just had to keep our heads, then crash. Stacey pushes back on the 3rd step of the corner to corner sequence right where my blade was going and the momentum we had sent me flying.
We finished and felt pretty deflated from the whole event, looking back now we can say at least we didn't give up. We held our ground and showed British grit, i like to think about this competition when I'm tired in training just to tell my self things could be made alot harder.
We were put into the Paris wing of the Sheraton hotel which was freaky as the next morning we were given our 2nd Grand Prix, the Eric Bompard Trophee in Paris France. We felt bad that Mariusz couldn’t get the free food that the skaters got so we went in search of Starbucks. We got directions from the front desk but took a wrong turn somewhere and it took us over an hour of walking to get 5mins from the hotel. Oh well! First practice went really well, we did basically a full long run through as good as we could do it. It was good because our world ranking points were high and ended up in the top group for the short programme. It was a plus because we didn’t have to draw to see where we skate and in the second group we got a lie in on morning practice.
Short went well, just a few points behind both US team's which is nothing when it comes to a long programme, which was strange as I thought Mark and Amanda's short was way better than it got marked and this was skate America. After a good solid long at Oberstdorf that sealed 6th place for us, we were looking for the same here. But on the practice the morning of the long Stacey came down from throw loop with her blade going straight through her thumb, she didn't realise at first and we were mid run through so she was thinking just try and shake off a nasty fall, then she looked at her finger, saw the bone then blood started pouring out of it!
I didn't know this and she kind of looked at me with sorry eye's as Mariusz was rushing her to first aid. So i tried to do a bit of on ice work while i still had a bit of time, few jumps and spins and then got curious to where Stacey was. I came to first aid and she fainted on the bed, I didn't know I had that effect on her! She came round quick and felt super crappy, she lay for a while worrying more about missing practice than the mess her hand was in. It was held together with glue and guase, she had a big argument with the doctor about needing stitches, he eventually gave in (Stacey is very persuasive) and bandaged her up really well.
So, we slept the whole day trying o shrug off the whole incident, we didn't go all that way to pull out now. We got to the rink for the long in good time as ever, the doctor re-bandaged Stacey's thumb and got on with our warm up. Unfortunately Stacey struggled to hold even basic lasso and just couldn't push on twist and this is just off ice. So we got on the ice not feeling so great but the programme went surprisingly well... Until, the last lift went up and Stacey just couldn't put any pressure on her hand, the lift came down after one rotation like a throw! She didn't fall luckily but we don't get the 6.5+ points for the lift, but we only had step and pair spin left just had to keep our heads, then crash. Stacey pushes back on the 3rd step of the corner to corner sequence right where my blade was going and the momentum we had sent me flying.
We finished and felt pretty deflated from the whole event, looking back now we can say at least we didn't give up. We held our ground and showed British grit, i like to think about this competition when I'm tired in training just to tell my self things could be made alot harder.
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