Depsite finishing second in the final free dance event this morning, Australian Ice Dance Champions Danielle O’Brien and Greg Merriman have narrowly missing the international podium after placing fourth overall at the Ice Challenge Trophy in Graz, Austria.
Going into the free dance and final section of the event, the Sydney couple, now based in Detroit, were sitting in fourth after the short dance and were hoping to go one better.
“Last month in Slovakia, we placed 4th and that was our best-ever international result, so we had hopes of going one better but we are very happy with our skate. This is a tough year because the International Skating Union has brought in a minimum score to be eligible for the World Championships and many teams are finding that score hard to attain, including us,” said Danielle from Graz.
“You know it’s difficult when many world-ranked teams are struggling to make the score this year,” Greg explained.
Danielle and Greg gained 112.02 points, only 1.56 away from bronze medallists Romona Elsener and Floran Roost from Switzerland and behind winners Lynn Kriengkrairut and Logan Giulietti-Schmidt from the USA with 139.70 points.
Skating a circus-themed free dance, the event announcer initially said Danielle and Greg were, “from this very country… Austria”, much to Greg’s amusement.
“That happens a lot,” Greg said with a laugh. “Maybe it’s weird that there is an Australian ice dance team on the world stage. We’ve had a great preparation and this is the first season we’ve taken on this many events, but we are ready for it now.”
In March this year, the couple made history when they placed 20th in the World Championships, becoming the first Australians to make the finals.
By Belinda Noonan
Courtesy: Burwood Scene
Going into the free dance and final section of the event, the Sydney couple, now based in Detroit, were sitting in fourth after the short dance and were hoping to go one better.
“Last month in Slovakia, we placed 4th and that was our best-ever international result, so we had hopes of going one better but we are very happy with our skate. This is a tough year because the International Skating Union has brought in a minimum score to be eligible for the World Championships and many teams are finding that score hard to attain, including us,” said Danielle from Graz.
“You know it’s difficult when many world-ranked teams are struggling to make the score this year,” Greg explained.
Danielle and Greg gained 112.02 points, only 1.56 away from bronze medallists Romona Elsener and Floran Roost from Switzerland and behind winners Lynn Kriengkrairut and Logan Giulietti-Schmidt from the USA with 139.70 points.
Skating a circus-themed free dance, the event announcer initially said Danielle and Greg were, “from this very country… Austria”, much to Greg’s amusement.
“That happens a lot,” Greg said with a laugh. “Maybe it’s weird that there is an Australian ice dance team on the world stage. We’ve had a great preparation and this is the first season we’ve taken on this many events, but we are ready for it now.”
In March this year, the couple made history when they placed 20th in the World Championships, becoming the first Australians to make the finals.
By Belinda Noonan
Courtesy: Burwood Scene
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