Alpine Skiing
Greta Small continued her injury rehabilitation at the AIS in Canberra making great progress with the Strength and Conditioning Staff in the gym before heading to Jindabyne for most of the winter to return to on snow training. After leaving Jindabyne, Small returned to the AIS for a further six-week intensive Strength and Conditioning bock.
 
Small is planning on heading to Europe for on snow training in mid December.
 
Bobsleigh
Bree Walker has been in Europe since last winter preparing for the northern hemisphere season, and has taken part in a number of successful push and sliding camp activities.
 
Unfortunately, Walker was unable to compete at opening two World Cup events in Sigulda, Latvia, after a member of her support team tested positive for COVID.
 
Bree is now planning for the next event on the Bobsleigh World Cup tour in Innsbruck, Austria, on December 12-13.
 
Curling
Mixed doubles pair Dean Hewitt & Tahli Gill have been training in their home states, with Hewitt at the Victorian Institute of Sport and Gill at the Queensland Academy of Sport.

With International travel restrictions in place it has been very difficult to access overseas Curling Ice to date.

The pair are aiming to be back on the ice training perhaps in Asia, by January in preparation for the 2021 World Mixed Doubles Curling Championships in late April. The event has been moved to Europe, with the exact location to be announced.
 
Figure Skating
Brendan Kerry has been based in Europe, training in France and Russia.
 
Kerry was scheduled to compete in the Internationaux de France ISU Grand Prix event in mid November, but it was unfortunately cancelled due to COVID restrictions in France.
 
Kailani Craine has remained at home in Newcastle training at her local ice rink, with Ice Dance couple Chantelle Kerry Andrew Dodds also training in Sydney.
 
Skeleton
Jackie Narracott has been training in Bath, UK, preparing for the northern hemisphere winter.
 
Narracott is currently evaluating the best plan, locations and opportunities for training and competition during the international season due to the difficult COVID situation in Europe.

Olympians Brendan Kerry and Kailani Craine have continued to extend their impressive list of national titles, after both claimed victory at the Australian Figure Skating Championships at the O’Brien Icehouse in Melbourne.

The two skaters have had an impressive decade as Australia's leading Figure Skating athletes, highlighted by two Olympic Games appearances for Kerry, with Craine becoming an Olympian for the first time in 2018.
 
Kerry took out his eighth national title in impressive fashion, scoring 216.11 points, to finish ahead of James Min and Damian Kaptich.

In the Senior Ladies, Craine won her sixth national title, with a comprehensive win ahead of Yancey Chan and Ashley Colliver.
 
Holly Harris and Jason Chan won their first national Senior Ice Dance title, finishing ahead of last years winners Chantelle Kerry & Andrew Dodds in second, with Matilda Friend and William Badaoui rounding out the podium in third.
 
Unfortunately Pairs skaters Harley Windsor and Ekaterina "Katya" Alexandrovskaya were unable to compete, due to an injury sustained by Alexandrovskaya in training prior to the competition.

The event was a great showcase of Australian Figure Skating, with strong participation and crowds over the week at the O'Brien Icehouse facility.
 
Podium Images ©  Michael Santer Photography

The Australian Figure Skating Championships took place during November 30-December 7 at Macquarie Ice Rink in Sydney.

Congratulations to the following athletes crowned Senior Australian Champions:

Pairs - Ekaterina Alexandrovskaya and Harley Windsor
Ice Dance - Chantelle Kerry and Andrew Dodds
Ladies - Kailani Craine
Men - Brendan Kerry

In a comprehensive victory, Kailani Craine has won her fourth consecutive national title surpassing her personal best score by nearly five points at the Australian Figure Skating Championships in Brisbane.

23-year-old Brendan Kerry made it a six-time win, coming from well behind in the short program with a fighting free program to retain his crown as Australia’s Men’s Champion.

Kailani had a spectacular national’s campaign with a clean short program that included a triple/triple combo and backing up with two triple lutzes in her free program to Moulin Rouge, achieving a PB total of 172.06 points.

“I love my short program,” she said.

In second place was the new junior national champion Amelia Jackson from Queensland who backed up by making the podium in senior ranks and in third was veterinary science student Katie Pasfield from NSW.

Struggling with multiple international flights and jet lag, Brendan Kerry skated a horror short program, missing every jump and ending up fifth on 57.17 points. He had his work cut out to catch short program leader Mark Webster who was on 65.03 points leading into the free program.

Fighting back to overhaul an eight-point lead, Kerry landed two triple axels and a triple/triple combo in the free program, earning 197.29 points, which was enough to secure the title ahead of Andrew Dodds on 190.80 and Mark Webster on 184.51, both of whom also skated strong free programs.  

Kerry had been testing out the order of the quad jump elements at the recent Shanghai Trophy in China and at the national championships.

“I wanted to see if I felt comfortable with the quad salchow as the first element, so we tried it in Shanghai but I didn’t want to base a decision off one comp, so nationals was a safe testing ground,” Kerry said.

“I’m definitely now able to sort the order of elements to put out strong consistent skates from here on out.”
Kerry will return to his new training base in New Jersey next week.  

“I’m looking at getting in some really solid training time without having to bounce around for comps. They were disappointing skates at nationals but I’m really happy I pulled up and won my sixth title. It’s important to me, especially heading into the Olympics.”

“At nationals I wanted a clean second half and when the loop didn’t happen, I was angry.”

Paris Stephens and Matthew Dodds took out the pairs championships and new dance team this year Chantelle Kerry and Andrew Dodds were impressive in their first championship together winning the dance.

Belinda Noonan
OWIA

The jury is still out on who will represent Australia in the Ladies figure skating event at the final Olympic qualification competition in Obersdorf, Germany next month.

Olympic hopeful Chantelle Kerry (16) of Sydney, skated a near perfect Short Program on Wednesday night, but her performance in the Free Program tonight left her just short of a straight forward selection by only 4.32 points.

Chantelle needed to achieve 141.88 or more to beat out Brooklee Han of Victoria, to get a straight bearth to the Obersdorf competition.

Brooklee was unable to compete at Skate Down Under this week due to illness so a decision must be made as to whether officicals send her or Chantelle to try and secure the Olympic quota place.

A decision will be made in coming days so it’s business as usual for Chantelle who will get straight back into training, focusing on the upcoming Junior Grand Prix event in Poland.

Ice Dancers Danielle O’Brien and Gregory Merriman, both from Sydney, skated away with the gold medal tonight beating out the visiting Swiss team, Romana Elsener and Florian Roost.

Brendan Kerry (19) from Sydney, skated the performance of his life tonight and achieved the highest score for an Australian in an International event since the new International Judging System came into play in 2005 with 192.28 points.

Ice Skating Australia will confirm the selections for the Obersdorf competition in the next few days.
Skate Down Under was held at Canterbury Olympic Ice Rink, Sydney from 20-22 August 2013. For full details of Skate Down Under visit www.isa.org.au

Follow Skate Down Under at @IceSkatingAUS

Day one of the Senior events at Skate Down Under is complete. The success of Australian skaters tonight and tomorrow will determine who Ice Skating Australia (ISA) will send to the final Olympic qualification competition in Germany.

Skaters must achieve a minimum technical score in order to be eligible for nomination to the Obersdorf qualifying event for the Sochi Winter Olympics.

As the competition stands Chantelle Kerry is in the lead with a personal best technical score of 43.82 followed by Sumika Yamada of Hong Kong with 40.70.

Ice dancers, Danielle O’Brien and Gregory Merriman, having already achieved the required technical score at the Four Continents Competition earlier in the year, sailed through the first part of the dance competition, leading the pack with 57.28 for the Short Dance.

The Senior Men did not let us down with an exciting Short Program event but it was not without drama. David Kranjec from Brisbane, skated a near perfect program but a fall on a spin looked to cost him dearly, leaving the door open for Brendan Kerry.

However, Brendan had a fall in his step sequence but skated an otherwise stella program. Kerry beating out Kranjec in the end by 8.48 with a total of 66.37.

The competition concludes tomorrow night at Canterbury Olympic Ice Rink, Sydney. For full details of Skate Down Under visit www.isa.org.au

Follow Skate Down Under at @IceSkatingAUS

Australian Ice Dance champions and OWIA/AIS scholarship holders, Danielle O’Brien and Greg Merriman added their fourth consecutive personal best performance at the ISU Four Continents Championship in Osaka, Japan last night finishing in a career-best 8th place.

Olympic silver medalists Meryl Davis and Charlie White from USA won their second Four Continents Championship over Canadian Olympic gold medalists and rivals, Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir.

The win for Davis and White over their Canadian training partners is the second this season and occurred after Virtue and Moir stopped mid performance prior to a lift, appearing to be out of breath. The couple were allowed to continue after a two-minute break, but by then the spell had been broken.

For O’Brien and Merriman, who moved to Detroit, USA, to train with Pasquale Camerlengo and Anjelika Krylova last year, the high scores achieved in Osaka, which would rank them within the top 20 in the world is bitter-sweet.

The Sydney team, who have made an impressive climb through the ranks this season, including a bronze medal in Poland four weeks ago, will be prevented from competing at the World Championships following a harsh decision by the International Skating Union last week not to lower the minimum score for Ice Dance, but lowering the score for all other disciplines.

It is thought that the decision by the Dance Technical Committee not to lower the scores was 3 – 2 against. Danielle and Greg have exceeded the minimum score twice for the Free Dance but are .5 outside the Short Dance score.

The ISU decision effectively locks out O’Brien and Merriman from the opportunity to qualify a direct Australian entry in the 2014 Sochi Olympics. Nineteen quota places will be allocated at the 2013 Worlds in London, Canada next month. The Australians, who were ranked 20th at last year’s World Championships will now have to rely on claiming one of the remaining five quota places at the Olympic Qualification Competition in September.

Australia’s Brooklee Han and Chantelle Kerry both had strong performances, placing 12th and 14th respectively the final in the ladies Championship. For Brooklee, who was within a mere .30 of the higher ISU qualifying score, the opportunity for an Olympic berth beckons after the ISU dropped the 2013 Worlds Ladies minimum technical score requirement by two points.

Landing four strong triple jumps and performing her trademark spins to their best potential, Brooklee stayed ahead of her teammate and current Australian Champion, Chantelle Kerry, who completed two or her planned four triples.

Bendan Kerry and David Kranjec finished 21st and 23rd in the men's event.

AIS/NSWIS Ice Dance couple Danielle O'Brien and Gregory Merriman have created history by winning their sixth straight title, at the 2012 National Championships at the Boondall ice rink in Brisbane.

Their sixth title gives them the most titles of any Ice Dance pair in Australian history.

Both were in good form and easily won, recording the highest scores in both the short and the longer free dance sections of the competition,

The dance couple will spend a week with family in Sydney before returning to their training base in Detroit, Michigan, USA.

In the Ladies event, 17-year-old Chantelle Kerry edged out Brookee Han to claim her maiden National Championship with clean and consistent performances in both the short and free programs.

Earlier this year, Kerry represented Australia placing 10th at the inaugural Youth Olympic Games which were held in Innsbruck, Austria.

AIS/NSWIS athlete and 2010 Olympian Cheltzie Lee was unable to skate due to injury.

On the Men's side, David Kranjec finished ahead of defending National Champion Brendan Kerry to win his first Australian title.

Despite finishing second, Kerry provided a real highlight by landing a quad toe-loop jump in the short program, making it the first quad landed by an Australian male in competition since Anthony Liu at the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympic Winter Games.

Australian Ice Dance Champions, Danielle O’Brien and Greg Merriman have finished in 20th place at the 2012 World Figure Skating Championships.

Along the way the AIS athletes made history in the Short Dance becoming the first Australian team to make the finals, achieving 20th place and scoring another PB by over five points.

The Short Dance performance, which earned Danielle and Greg 47.92 points, follows their stand-out performance in the qualifying round, which catapulted the Sydney couple into the best twenty-five ice dancers in the world with only twenty couples advancing to the final Free Dance.

With the top- ranked nine dancers still to compete, O’Brien and Merriman were happy to settle for 21st place, an achievement in itself after five years trying to break into the top 24, when the second French couple, who placed 7th in the European Championships last month, faltered and were placed below the Australians.

“It was history in the making,” said Australian Team Leader, Melina Simjanovic. “With only the top two groups left, we all knew there wasn’t much hope. Dan and Greg were happy with what they thought would be a 21st place. Dani even started planning what she would do tomorrow (sight see). Then the French team skated and had a few mishaps, but we thought they would still be scored above.”

“Then scores came up and 47 points were announced. Greg knew he and Dani also scored 47 but thought that theirs was in the low 47s and therefore would miss by the narrowest of margins. I turned to Dani to say you’re in. Suddenly we all realised they would make the top 20 and therefore, the finals,” Melina said. “Dani looked shell shocked and it took a while for the result to sink in to both of them.”

“They skated fantastically. We are all looking forward to seeing Dani and Greg at their absolute greatest to date in the Free Dance tomorrow. It’s a chance for them to perform, enjoy and have a blast.”

Building towards a successful 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics has been the long-term goal for the young couple, who moved to Bloomfields Michigan last September to train with Pasquale Carmerlengo and Anjelika Krylova. Danielle (from Strathfield) and Greg (from Canterbury) have given up family life to pursue their potential.

“We have more belief in ourselves now and it helps to be training in a team who are supportive and have a coaching staff who are supportive. We know we need to push ourselves and we have learned this through our training environment,” Danielle and Greg said after the event.

“This event has definitely been a turning point for us. It’s really nice to receive so many compliments and good wishes. Technically it wasn’t the strongest that we could do but we enjoyed it and are happy with whatever we did because we had qualified through to the short.”

“We produced the best short dance we have done this season and the scores showed it.”

Creating history was not on the their minds. “We knew we had potential to be good. Just didn’t know when we would be able to put it out there and make it happen,” they said.

In the final dance, Danielle and Greg remained in 20th place, recording a personal best overall score of 112.23 points.

Other Aussies in Action
Also representing Australia at the World Championship individual events were Brendan Kerry and his younger sister Chantelle who both made their World Championship debut.

In the preliminary rounds, Brendan placed 15th place in the men's skate with Chantelle finishing in 22nd in the women's event.

The Winter Youth Olympic Games in January was a turning point for fifteen year-old Australian figure skater Chantelle Kerry, who surprised herself with a ninth placing. After the Four Continents Championship in February last month, the vivacious, smiling Kerry subsequently gained selection to her first World Championships in Nice, France and will be competing in the qualifying round tomorrow.

The 2012 World Championship is her first and keeping it all in the family is coached by her mother, 1988 Olympian Monica McDonald. The family affair doesn’t stop there with Chantelle being joined by her seventeen year-old brother, and also competing in his first World Championship.

Chantelle is looking to place in the top ten in the qualifying round to move through to the Short Program. With thirty-three ladies, it’s a tall order for one of the youngest competitors.

“We never expected Chantelle to be at this event,” said excited mum, Monica McDonald, “but the opportunity came up, so we took it.”

Assisting Olympic coach in Sydney, Kylie Fennell believes Chantelle could be a dark horse in the qualifying. “Chantelle has kept working, doing her thing and flying under the radar. Her jumps have improved, with two of her triples coming clean in the past few weeks. Also in her favour is a delightful presence on the ice and very strong spins,” Kylie said.

Australian Men’s Champion, 17 year-old AIS figure skater Brendan Kerry has his sights set on the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics and will also need to qualify tomorrow. Three weeks ago he finished 22nd in the finals at the 2012 World Junior Championships.

Australian Ice Dance Champions, Danielle O’Brien (from Strathfield) and Greg Merriman (from Canterbury) competed in the Four Continents Championship in Colorado Springs, USA last weekend placing 9th, scoring a personal best 105.91 points. The title was won by current Canadian Olympic Champions Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir. 2011 World Champions, Meryl Davis and Charlie White from USA had to settle for the silver having led their training mates in the Short Dance the day before.

The talented duo, who missed out on the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics, have relocated to Bloomfield Hills in USA to train with the successful coaching team of Pasquale Camerlengo and Anjelika Krylova in their bid to make the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia. Among their training partners are the third placed Americans and the top French couple who recently won the European Championship.

Danielle and Greg will return to their training base before heading off to the World Championships in Nice, France in late March.

In the men’s event, OWI athlete Brendan Kerry achieved Australia’s highest placing in 19th, with Ice Skating Australia (ISA) skaters Mark Webster 20th and Nicholas Fernandez 24th.

In the women’s event, ISA skater Chantelle Kerry finished in 17th place in her first Four Continents event with Zara Pasfield in 29th and Jaimee Nobbs 30th.

Article courtesy www.burwoodscene.com.au