Year 11 student Summer Cheesman is a fantastic ice skater and she recently attended the British Synchronised Ice Skating Championships. Here is her write up of her time there:
After a three year break due to Covid and the competition being relocated last year, the British Championships returned to the National Ice Centre in Nottingham in January 2023.
The Club which I skate for, Solent Syncho, took seven teams comprising of about 75 skaters, to compete in the Britannia Cup. There were teams from all around the UK and teams from the USA, Australia, Poland, Finland and Norway. I was skating in two teams. Solent Waves in the Juvenile category and Solent Storm in the Junior B category, each team had 16 skaters.
Our routine in the Juvenile category had a spooky theme, with dresses that looked like spiders’ webs and Music from the Addams Family and “Spooky Scary Skeletons”. There was a team from Nottingham in this category, who are notoriously difficult to beat as they have a much larger Ice rink than our club practices on, and they practice for a lot more hours per week than we can. Teams also often skate better at their home Ice rink, but we were still hoping that we would get a medal, even if it was Bronze! We were last to skate in our category, so we knew that Nottingham had already scored 33.02 but they were only in 2nd place as a team from Dumfries in Scotland had scored 34.14. The team currently in 3rd place had scored 27.63 so we were hoping we could beat that score and at least come home with a bronze medal.
We skated the routine very cleanly with no one falling or missing a move. We stood on the podium at the end waiting for our score which took a long time to be announced. This usually means that the judges are reviewing the video footage to check that we had done all the required elements correctly. They finally announced that we had scored 43.96 which was not only a huge lead in front of the other teams, but for the Juvenile category an incredibly high score and also personal best for the team in its entire history.
The next day the Junior B team skated. This routine’s music is a Shakira montage, with Black and pink lace dresses. The category is much harder than the Juvenile category involving elements that are more difficult such as lifts, where three skaters lift another skater in a flying pose. Again, our routine went very smoothly with no falls. We scored 60.52 which was a personal best for our team, so we were really pleased. As the other teams in this category skated, none of them scored higher than us with the result having a team from Slough get 55.20 and the Sheffield team getting 48.77.
So, both teams became British Champions for 2023.
Our club’s Senior B team also became British Champions in their category. Our Pre-Juvenile team got silver medals. Our Intermediate team got bronze medals. Our Beginners team came 4th, and our adults team came 6th. It was a very long and busy weekend but an incredible experience and because I was also in two teams last year who became British Champions, I am now a two-time double British champion.
Summer Cheesman (11 Burrows)