Successful competitions – New British Record, Personal Bests and more international medals
31st Golden Bear
Natasha McKay and Danielle Harrison competed at the 31st Golden Bear in Zagreb Croatia – and it was a great success.
Senior Ladies category
Tash has earned a new British Record, Personal Best score and her second international medal of the season, after claiming gold at the Tayside Trophy. This means she also gained more World Ranking points placing her higher in the international rankings.
Short Program
Tash skated a clean Short Program, earning 55.83 points putting her in 5th place going into the Free Program. Her program included a nice triple Loop double Toeloop combination, a triple Salchow and a double Axel. Danielle didn’t have her best skate in the Short Program, but fought until the end, scoring 37.90 points and placing 19th.
Free Program
Tash put down the performance of her life in the Free Program. She skated a clean program including two triple Loops, one in combination with a double Toeloop, two triple Salchows, one in combination with a double Toeloop, a triple Toeloop and a double Axel. All of her spins earned the highest difficulty level (level 4) and she earned the most points out of the competition field for her Level 4 Step Sequence and her Choreo Sequence. Tash earned a score of 114.43 points placing her second in the Free Program and with a Personal Best total combined score of 170.26 points she finished the competition in 3rd place.
Danielle had a much better showing in the Free Program earning 82.66 points. She moved up two places from the Short Program finishing the competition in 16th place, with a total combined score of 120.56 points.
Tash commented: “I have been training well and felt comfortable at the competition. I always train the best I can in practice, which helps me when I compete. I am very pleased with my scores and the fact that I am continuing to progress. Recently scoring a British Record at the Qualifier 3 event in Dundee in front of a home crowd was already amazing. Now proving myself once again on the international stage and scoring another British Record is very rewarding. This would not be possible without the selfless support of my whole coaching team, British Ice Skating and other great support I am lucky to receive.”
GB Olympic Coach Simon Briggs said: “This event has really been a great outing for Natasha. She put down the performance of her life in the Free Program. This is down to the hard workd, dedication, and great attitude that she has. She has proven time and time again that she has what it takes to continue to build each season, and after three events this year, she has stepped up big time. We are delighted with the result here, with personal bests, a British Record, and another international medal for GB. I am also very satisfied with Danielle, who is working hard in practice which is slowly showing in competition.”
40th Volvo Cup
Karly Robertson and Danielle Harrison travelled to Riga, Latvia to compete at the 40th Volvo Cup against 28 skaters from 16 Nations.
Senior Ladies category
Short Program
Karly delivered a clean Short Program including a triple Toeloop triple Toeloop combination, a triple Salchow and a double Axel. She scored 54.63 points putting her in 6th place.
Danni’s program included a triple Salchow double Toeloop combination, a triple Loop and a double Axel. She scored 46.23 points putting her in 20th place.
Free Program
Karly scored 92.80 points for her Free Program, that included a triple Salchow, two triple Toeloop’s, one in combination with a double Toeloop and a triple Loop. She also received two points deductions for falls. With a total combined score of 147.43 she placed 6th, being the best out of 5 British skaters in the event.
Danni didn’t have the best Free Program having some difficulties with her jumping elements, which she is able to land easily in practice. With a total combined score of 116.42 she finished the competition in 22nd place.
2019 Denkova Staviski Cup
Natasha McKay and Conor Stakelum travelled to Sofia, Bulgaria to compete at the 2019 Denkova Staviski Cup.
Senior Ladies
Short Program
After making a mistake on her opening combination – instead of a double Toeloop she only executed a single Toeloop, leading to -5 (GOE) from the judges – she skated flawlessly thereafter. She scored 51.46 points putting her in 3rd place going into the Free Program.
Free Program
Tash skated a solid free Program, including a triple Loop, triple Toeloop, triple Salchow and double Axel. All of her spins and her step sequence received the hardest difficulty level (4) and positive marks from all judges. With a Free Program score of 99.37 points and a total combined score of 150.83 she claimed the second spot on the podium and her third international medal of the season.
Senior Men
Short Program
Conor skated a clean Short Program, opening with a triple Loop followed by a triple Toeloop triple Toeloop combination. He earned a total of 59.44 points putting him in 7th place.
Free Program
Conor delivered a good Free Program with some areas of improvement. He executed four triple jumps in his program and two double Axel’s. With a Free Program score of 104.58 points and a total combined score of 162.02 he finished the competition in 10th place, being the best Irish men in the competition.
