Phoenix News(UPDATED 09/12/2011)
Junior Worlds 2011
Junior World class skater, Chloe Dyke has just returned from her third world championships this year being staged in Brasilia, Brasil. The 2011 Championships recorded record entries in all the disciplines and in Chloe’s event, the Junior Solo Dance category, she found herself up against 24 other competitors from 16 countries. The Guernsey skater found herself in a dilemma immediately upon arrival in brazil as her luggage was not transferred over from the connecting flight in Lisbon and therefore found herself without her costumes to commence her training. However with the American team to the rescue to provide this Chloe settled in well to the first day of training.
With the arrival of her luggage on the third day, this gave a huge boost to her confidence and with the final day of training coming to a conclusion she had patterned both the compulsory dances and Freedance programme perfectly in readiness for the Championship. With Chloe having drawn 24th to skate in the first dance, the Flirtation Waltz, she demonstrated to the World Judges, excellent edges and beautiful lines and technique in the dance and found herself placed in the middle of the field. With this confident start under her belt she again performed the second compulsory dance with a very controlled manner and earned marks in the mid 7's range. Once all the scores were calculated, Chloe found herself in 13th place but being chased strongly by the south American competitors.
With an early morning training session and the conclusion of the freedance on the same day, Chloe found herself in only the second group of skaters so unfortunately the draw for the order of skating did not go to her advantage and although she skated a good interpretation of Burlesque the challenge from the Argentine skater was too much and Chloe slipped one place to finish in a very creditable 14th place.
Many new experiences are gained from competing at World level and this will further encourage Chloe to evaluate what she needs to concentrate on in order to break into a top 10 ranking. Chloe was kindly supported financially by her very encouraging employee Heritage Insurance Management Limited.
Cup of Europe 2011
Four local skaters from the Phoenix Artistic Roller Skating Club have just returned from the Cup of Europe International staged by the European Committee for Artistic Roller Skating in Bordeaux.
The local skaters attained their places on the British team by their performances at the 2011 British Championships and unfortunately through lack of financial assistance both nationally and locally the attendance to the event has been achieved through self funding.
Jodene Corbin gave representation in the Espoir category which is for skaters 11 & 12 years of age and found herself against some very strong opposition from France with them totally dominating the event. Despite Jodene producing the best performances to date and showing great improvement since the British Championship she placed 10th overall.
Chloe Dyke and Emilia Bianco represented GB in the Junior Category, which this year produced an influx of male competitors due to the ruling being changed which now allows couple skaters to enter this event. Despite a good draw order both Chloe and Emilia showed some good edge skating in the two compulsory dances, although with the floor condition not being to their liking they did not produce the confident performances that would be needed to challenge for the medals. At this stage of the competition they had been placed 9th & 10th respectively. With all to skate for in the Freedance section they really did sell the performances and earned some very respectable marks in doing so. However despite this with the innovative powerful performances that followed them they finally placed, Chloe 9th and Emilia 10th.
The Final Phoenix skater to represent GB was Natalie Cannon who for the first time had earned her place in the team at the Senior Ladies Discipline. With a smooth foxtrot and much improved Iceland Tango Natalie received some decent marks and witnessed the strength of the Italian nation in the event. Despite drawing 1st to skate the Freedance Natalie performed her routine to the best of her ability and set a good standard for the remaining competitors to follow. Watching the top group demonstrated how much more the European nations are training and the Italians showed their domination at this level by taking all three medals. Natalie finished 10th overall.
From this event Chloe Dyke will be leaving on the 12th November for Brasil to represent Great Britain in the Junior world Championship and will hopefully produce some excellent skating with the hope of retaining her 8th place from the 2010 championships.
Maidstone Club Competition 2011
The Phoenix Artistic Roller Skating Club have once again returned from the 2011 Maidstone Club competition by winning the Visitors Cup. This is presented to the club who has amassed the highest number of points awarded to the top 5 placings in the events held over the festival.
This year provided some testing times leading up to the event but especially on the day of departure, due to weather conditions preventing any flights leaving the island before mid-day. This found some members taking the ferry in the morning and the majority not landing in Gatwick until 10pm the night before the event.
Despite the team feeling very tired the following day they dug deep to produce some excellent performances with the Guernsey team taking three victories on that day and medals being won in every event they had entered.
Saturday’s results:-
Non Medallist OSP – Chloe Hutchinson 1st
Non medallist free skating 10 years & Under – Miles Corbin 3rd
Non medallist free skating 13years & over – Lucy Ozard 2nd, Nicola Roland 8th
Adult Freekskating – Natalie Cannon 3rd
Small Club show number – Open Standard – 1st Phoenix – What a Picture – Chloe Dyke, Emilia Bianco, Lucy Ozard, Nicola Roland, Natalie Cannon & Amilie White. 3rd – Phoenix - Naughty Little Boys- Georgina Hockey, Lucy Hockey, Chloe Hutchinson, Elliotte Jordan, Brooke Le Page, Nicola Ayres
Inter Bronze & Bronze Teams – 2nd – Phoenix Flames – Caitlin McNichol, Monica Dekker, Jodene Corbin.
Non Medallists Team – Phoenix Fledglings – Chloe Hutchinson, Elliotte Jordan, Lauren Ingrouille
Elementary & Preliminary Formation Team – 2nd Phoenix Featherweights – Brooke Le Page, Georgina Hockey & Nicola Ayres – 3rd Phoenix Fillies – Laura Bloomfield, Natalie Collas & Marshaine Maubec.
Preliminary & Inter- Bronze OSP – 2nd Monica Dekker, 3rd Jodene Corbin, 10th Catilin McNichol, 11th Brooke le Page, 12th Marshaine Maubec,14th Rhiannon Fitch, 15th Laura Bloomfield,17th Georgina Hockey, 18th Natalie Collas
Inter-Silver & Above Formation Team – 3rd Phoenix Flyers – Chloe Dyke, Emilia Bianco, Natalie Cannon, 9th Phoenix Aces – Nicola Roland,Lucy Ozard, Amilie White
Club show Number – 2nd Place
With the haul of medals from Saturdays competition in hand the team, although very tired, found themselves against some very formidable opposition in the individual events on the Sunday. In some sections the entries were in excess of 50 competitors, which led to heats being held to qualify only 6 skaters for the final. Notable victories in both the OSP and Compulsory dance section where seen by Lucy Ozard in the Inter-silver category and Lauren Ingrouille taking the Non-medallist new comers event.
Sunday’s Results:-
Inter Bronze & Bronze Solo Dance – 3rd Monica Dekker, 6th Caitlin McNichol, 9th Jodene Corbin, 11th Rhiannon Fitch.
Inter-silver & Silver Solo Dance 15 years & under – 1st Lucy Ozard
Inter-silver & silver Solo Dance 16 years & over – 5th Amilie White, 10th Danielle Queru
Inter-Gold & Above Solo Dance – 2nd Chloe Dyke, 5th Natalie Cannon, 6th Emilia Bianco, 10th Nicola Roland
Free Dance 18 years & Under – 2nd Chloe Dyke, 4th Emilia Bianco
Newcomers Solo Dance – 1st Lauren Ingrouille
Non medallists Solo Dance – 3rd Elliotte Jordan, 7th Chloe Dyke
OSP Bronze & Inter- silver – 1st Lucy Ozard, 11th Amillie White, 19th Danielle Queru
Silver and Above Freedance – 4th Natalie Cannon, 6th Nicola Roland
Youth/Junior & Senior British Championships 2011
A local contingent of Guernsey skaters have returned from the 2011 British Solo Dance Championships with three individuals earning themselves places on the European Team for the Cup of Europe Event being staged in Bordeaux in November.
Lucy Ozard gave representation in the Youth category and found this years competition to an exceptionally high standard and although showing some great edge skating and style of the Terenzi Waltz and Imperial Tango she found herself in 5th place at this stage of the competition. Selecting a new freedance for 2011 Lucy’s interpretation of “The Iron Mask” was well received by the judges with two of them placing her 3rd overall, however once the calculations were finalised she had narrowly missed out on the bronze medal and finished in a very creditable 4th place.
The junior section of the Championships witnessed the clash of the titans with four very talented skaters fighting it out for the medals. Chloe Dyke and Emilia Bianco representing Guernsey at this level. Emilia drew 1st to skate the compulsory dance section and set a very good standard in the Flirtation waltz for the remaining competitors to follow. Chloe challenged her fellow team member with the judges awarding her mid sevens for the dance and placing her in 2nd place at this point in the competition. With the Guernsey girls wanting to prove themselves in the 2nd dance, the Rocker Foxtrot, they demonstrated the best rocker turn of all the competitors. Despite this the judges awarded slightly higher marks to the male skaters, due to the strength of edges they executed and therefore Chloe and Emilia found themselves in 2nd and 4th place respectively. The second day of competition was the freedance element and again despite some excellent performances from the Guernsey girls they were unable to convince the judges to place them higher and they both retained their positions from the compulsory round.
The final event for the Guernsey Team was the Senior Solo Dance Championships where three Phoenix skaters made challenge for the title. Kirsty Chick launched her Solo Dance career following her retirement in 2009 from Couples skating and nursing a major foot injury she skated with pure grit and determination to finish in a very creditable 10th place. Nicola Roland again found the opposition very tough at this level and performed some very confident compulsory dances and a clean freedance and placed 12th overall. Natalie Cannon placed some very smooth compulsory dances and found herself in 4th place at this stage of the competition . With good marks being achieved in the freedance section she managed to retain a top slot by finishing 5th overall.
Chloe, Emilia and Natalie have since received invitations to skate for Great Britain at the Cup of Europe Competition being held in France in November and Chloe has also made world selection for her 3rd successive year at Junior level and will travel to Brasilia in November to hopefully improve on her 8th place attained last year.
Tots/Minis & Elementary Dance Championships 2011
A team of 5 skaters have just returned from this year’s British Championships held in Peterborough for the Tots, Mini and Elementary Dance Championships.
Miles Corbin aged 7 competed in his first ever Free Skating event, the first Guernsey skater on record to enter a national event at this discipline. With only two months to prepare for the event, Miles has recently mastered several jumps and spins to create a programme with music from “Karate Kid”. Although very nervous and with a clean performance of his two minute programme, Miles was able to win the silver medal which has now inspired him to work on more difficult elements for next year’s Championships.
With one silver medal in the bag Miles was now to face a field of over 25 other skaters to try to retain the Tots Dance Championship he won in 2010. However despite a strong performance by him, with a couple of errors made in the dances, Miles was edged out of the victory slot but earned a respectable silver medal against a very strong field of skaters.
Lucy Hockey was selected this year by attaining the Elementary dance Medal qualification in January. With no preconceived ideas she skated three dances to a very good standard, showing the judges her ability to produce a solid and proficient performance. Finishing in 5th place out of the 24 competitors. Lucy has been truly inspired by this experience and is already planning how she will move into the medal positions in 2012.
The Elementary Dance Championships this year certainly had its ups and downs for the local club with defending champion, Monica Dekker, falling in her first compulsory dance to find herself slotting into 5th place after the two dances. Both Caitlin McNichol and Jodene Corbin placed some very careful dances on what was a very slippery surface found themselves in 2nd and 3rd respectively. With nothing to lose for all three girls they skated with real determination to gain a higher place with the compulsory and freedance marks added together. Jodene had recently changed her freedance from Grease to Jai Ho following a successful debut of the programme at the recent Eisteddfod and she really pleased the crowd with her rendition of this very popular song. Caitlin placed a more dramatic focus on her freedance with music extracts from the Mummy, although suffering with a knee injury placed a safe performance for the judges to evaluate. Finally Monica was last to skate and with so much to prove to herself she made an excellent start to her freedance. The music was taken from Sister Act and in the last 45 seconds the errors started to creep in. Due to this she did not alter her placing once the final result was known. Jodene’s efforts paid due rewards with her moving into the silver medal position but Caitlin was edged out into 4th place. The result has certainly highlighted the lack of training at the local leisure centre which has hampered the ability to polish their routines to the required standard. However they have all learnt so much from this experience and will put this to good use for future competitions.
Spring Solo Competition 2011 Report
The Phoenix Artistic Roller skating club has recently sent 22 skaters to compete in the 2011 Spring Solo Competitions staged by the National Federation and held over a two day period in Haywards Heath . The objective for the Club was to win The Robinson Club Shield which is awarded to the Club which attains the most points over the two days of competition, this works on the basis of 1st place being awarded 10 points down to 1 point for 10th place. With this goal in mind the Guernsey skaters were very busy in preparing for the event, with many of the lessons having to be conducted away from their regular times at Beau Sejour Leisure Centre, due to the ever increasing events which are now taking over the main sports hall facilities.
Saturday’s events were set aside for all the solo standard events. The Guernsey skaters found themselves in elimination rounds with only the top 6 at each level progressing to a Grand Final. In the non-medallist event three Phoenix skaters found themselves making into the final eliminating 74 other skaters in the process, Guernsey dominated the top three places with Brooke Le Page winning the event, Nicola Ayres in 2nd and Georgina Hockey in 3rd. Dovanna Folmi and Elliotte Jordan made it into the semi finals of this class.
In the Preliminary standard Caitlin McNichol and Marshaine Maubec made the semi finals, whilst Monica Dekker and Jodene Corbin edged their way into the finals, with Monica taking another Phoenix victory and Jodene finishing in 5th place. The Bronze standard was a very tough event for the Guernsey skaters with Amelie White making it into a very strong semi final round. Lucy Ozard was very unfortunate in the Inter-Silver standard by just finishing out of the medals in 4th place and following this saw the Clash of the Titans with the Silver medallists and over competing for the 6 slots available. Both Natalie Cannon and Emilia Bianco fought their way into the Semi-finals with Chloe Dyke making into the last six and finishing in 3rd place.
The final events on the Saturday were the Bronze and Intersilver and above Duo’s in which Hannah Dyke and Amillie White finished in 5th in the Bronze category, with Chloe and Emilia winning a silver medal in the higher standard.
With a good days results under their belt the Phoenix skaters were placed well on the score board for the elusive Shield.
With confidence running high Sunday’s events saw some excellent performances from the Guernsey team. Unfortunately due to the number of competitors and events to be run, the Phoenix Club found themselves having to leave the event at 6pm in order to catch their return flights home. In doing so they found themselves missing four events, which understandably frustrated them as new routines and costumes had been made for these events. However despite this setback the results that followed indicated that the Club had done extremely well and had accumulated a massive 208 points to clinch victory, over two very strong London Clubs, to be awarded the Robinson Club Shield, which was won by the Club in 1995 and 2004. With the skaters not being present to receive their medals they have recently taken delivery of the very much deserved trophies. The results for Sunday are:-
Non medallists OSP – Brooke Le Page, 1st ,Georgina Hockey 5th, Chloe Hutchinson 10th
Preliminary Medallists under12 OSP Jodene Corbin 1st, Monica Dekker 2nd, Caitlin McNichol 5th
Preliminary Medallists Over 13 – Laura Bloomfield 5th, Natalie Collas 7th, Marshaine Maubec 11th
Bronze OSP – Amillie White 5th , Hannah Dyke 7th, Danielle Queru 9th
Teams of Three
Preliminary – 1st Phoenix Aces, Monica Dekker, Jodene Corbin, Caitlin McNichol
7th – Phoenix Fillies – Laura Bloomfield, Marshaine Maubec, Natalie Collas
Inter-silver & Above – 2nd Phoenix Airwaves – Chloe Dyke, Emilia Bianco, Natalie Cannon, 3rd Darren Dyke, Lucy Ozard, Nicola Roland
Duos
Non Medallists – Nicola Ayres & Dovanna Folmi 3rd, Brooke Le Page & Georgina Hockey 4th, Heat 2 – Chloe Hutchinson and Elliotte Jordan 4th
Preliminary – Jodene Corbin & Monica Dekker 2nd, Caitlin McNichol & Marshaine Maubec 3rd, Natalie Collas & Laura Bloomfield 4th
TOTS & ESPOIR BRITISH CHAMPIONSHIPS 2010
Five young members of the Phoenix Artistic Roller Skating Club have recently returned with two British titles amongst them. The young contingency from Guernsey travelled to Peterborough to compete in the 2010 British Artistic Roller Skating Championships for their respective age groups.
Miles Corbin was the youngest member of the group at just having turned 7 two days before the competition, was experiencing his first British Championship at the Tots level. He was required to skate two compulsory dances and in order to achieve being crowned British Champion had to reach a standard recognised and set by the governing body. Although this year was meant to be a learning curve for Miles he skated perfectly in time and with some strong edges, which was recognised by the three judges, gave him just enough marks to be awarded the British title!!!
The remaining skaters in the Guernsey party were four young Espoir skaters and although in the past there has been some good opposition from the mainland it was going to be interesting on which Guernsey girls came out on top! In this category they were required to perform two compulsory dances with, what was a new element for them in 2010, a two minute freedance.
Caitlin McNichol certainly stamped her mark on the compulsory dances with earning the only 7’s awarded during the competition and found herself leading the field with Monica Dekker closely behind her in 2nd and Jodene Corbin again hot on both their heels in 3rd place. Rhiannon Fitch also performed exceptionally well and placed 6th and this stage of the competition.
With Rhiannon being drawn in the second group she skated first for the Guernsey team in the freedfance section and with her compilation of Michael Jacksons songs she earned sufficient marks to place her in the top ten by finishing in 9th place. With the three remaining Phoenix skaters positioned in the top group, Jodene was first to perform and gave a good account for herself in her routine “Alladin” waiting anxiously to see how her fellow team members would perform. Monica followed the performance and gained the highest marks on the interpretation side with her programme “Bugsy Malone”. Caitlin was last to perform and with her jive routine she also earned very consistent marks and once the total marks for the entire competition were calculated, Monica had pushed Caitlin into 2nd position by one judge, which reflected what an exciting competition this had been to watch, but moreover a Guernsey skater winning another British title. Jodene regrettably found herself also loosing the bronze medal position by a very narrow margin. However Darren Dyke who accompanied the skaters was extremely proud of how all the skaters had performed throughout the championships, which reflected on the high standard the Guernsey team produced and the titles that were won!
Youth British Solo Dance Championships 2010.
Lucy Ozard the sole representative at this years Youth British Championships has just returned from a successful competition with her first year at this level of competition. The 2010 Championships were staged in Maidstone, Kent and this year attracted 13 entries from around the UK, with the skaters being challenged to perform two compulsory dances and a freedance lasting 2 ½ minutes.
Saturday saw the two compulsory dances being skated and although in the European Waltz Lucy demonstrated some excellent technique she failed to impress the judges enough to place her in medal contention, however with an improved performance in the Keats Foxtrot she moved herself to within striking distance of the top places by having two of the judges placing her 3rd at that stage of the competition.
The Sunday saw the climax of the Championship with Lucy having just missed out on the top group and having to skate 1st in the second group, placing her under more pressure to challenge for the bronze medal. Despite this Lucy skated her Latin routine to the best of her ability and showed great feel for the rhythms being played. With a top mark of 7.6 for manner of performance she was able to keep two of the judges placing her in 3rd, but with the remaining three placing her in 5th , this became her final placing.
It was a great experience for Lucy to compete at this level and has highlighted areas of improvement in order for her to challenge next year for a medal.
British Junior & Senior Dance Championships 2010
A small team of skaters from the Phoenix Artistic Roller Skating Club have returned to compete for another year at the 2010 British Championships held in Haywards Heath. Two Junior members namely Emilia Bianco and Chloe Dyke participated in the Junior Solo Dance Championships in which Emilia was defending her British Title. With the skaters both familiar with the venue they were very quick to make themselves comfortable with the floor conditions and with both of them putting in a strong performance in the Blues they found themselves splitting the judges and sharing the top spot. However in the HK Tango Emilia showed true character in the dance and placed a very strong and dramatic performance to clinch the Gold position at this stage with Chloe moving comfortably into 2nd.
Moving in to the free dance section would decide the title between the Guernsey girls and with both the programmes being quite different it was going to challenge the judges on splitting this talented duo.
Chloe was first to skate in the final group and although it was not one of her strongest performances to date she managed to earn some respectable marks and laid down the gauntlet for the others to follow. With this in mind Emilia raised her game and with performing, what is her most suited programme to date, she came out with great passion and strength and wowed both the audience and judges to retain her Junior Title with Chloe claiming the silver medal. With this result the two talented skaters have now been given a selection to represent Great Britain in the Cup of Europe, this year being staged in the Island of Sicily where based on their performance they will see whether they can earn themselves a place on the World team.
Accompanying the Juniors were two Senior Solo dancers, namely Natalie Cannon and Nicola Roland.
Natalie is new to the Guernsey shores and is giving her first outing at a British Championship under the Phoenix banner, Whilst Nicola was competing in her third Championships. Both of them found the opposition quite formidable this year and despite performing some reasonable compulsory dances found themselves at the lower end of the competition. With nothing to lose they pushed the free dance section to the best of their abilities and in doing so made a few stumbles in their routines which impacted their manner of performance mark and dropped them into the final places of Natalie 13th and Nicola 15th.
Maidstone Club Competition 2010
The Phoenix Artistic Roller Skating Club have just returned from a very successful outing at the Maidstone Open competition where 22 local skaters competed in the event, this being one of the largest teams ever sent from the Island. With the mixture of total beginners up to International standard this was going to be a very interesting two days of competition.
The first day saw most of the show number events take place and victory came in the small groups section with the six senior girls performing an extract from Chicago called the "Six Deadly Dames". With good team work and a difficult routine put together with great interpretation of the number the locals held off the challenge from the Maidstone Club. The winning team consisted of, Emilia Bianco, Chloe Dyke, Hannah Dyke, Nicola Roland, Natalie Cannon and Amilie White. The two more junior teams fell short of the Bronze medal by finishing 5th and 6th respectively.
In the large teams a full member cast was submitted by the Phoenix Club and with their extract from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang they were this time beaten into 2nd place by the very polished routine from the Maidstone Club. Although disappointing for the club the standard of this event was exceptional this year and the result could have gone either way.
In the formation team events this proved to be an exceptional category for the Club with the Guensey talent winning three out of the four team events with the Non medallist team of Alex Dekker, Brooke Le Page and Georgina Hockey taking the first victory followed by the Phoenix Flyers Elementary/Preliminary team consisting of Caitlin McNichol, Jodene Corbin and Monica Dekker. In the Bronze team category the team made an unfortunate error in the first dance which then placed them just outside the medals but with a much more confident and intricate formation in the Tango they pushed themselves into the Bronze medal position. The final standard category was the Inter-silver and above and with a very together team of Emilia Bianco, Natalie Cannon and Chloe Dyke they surpassed the opposition and took the crown that had been constantly won by the local Maidstone skaters for many years.
To round off the medal success of the first day Lucy Ozard and Nicola Roland competed in the
non medallists free skating event and with both of them having such experience in the dance format they were able to compete with the top group and after their confident performances Lucy won the silver with Nicola just missing out on the Bronze medal.
Following the success of the first day’s competition it was with great anticipation for the team as to what could be achieved, especially as the competition would show the talents of the solo skaters. First event of the day was the newcomers which following the elimination process both Chloe Hutchinson and Lucy Hockey found themselves in the final six out of 48 starters. Despite a brave effort they finish 5th and 6th respectively which is a major achievement in their first mainland competition. The more experienced Non medallists again had a competition some 60 entries strong and once again four phoenix skaters progressed through the rounds with Nicola Ayres making the quarter final and the three remaining skaters making it through to the final six. With all to skate for the event was won by local girl Brooke Le Page with fellow team member Alex Dekker in 2nd and Georgina Hocky in 4th. Nearly a clean sweep for the Phoenix crew! The Elementary/Preliminary category witnessed yet another victory for Phoenix, with Caitlin McNichol producing a very strong performance to take Gold and Monica Dekker the silver. Bronze standard saw Amilie White just miss out on the Gold medal taking second and Lucy Ozard in the under 16 Inter Silver skated to win the Bronze medal. Moving on to the over 16's the Guernsey team of Chloe Dyke and Emilia Bianco took 1st and 2nd in the event showing their continued dominance at this standard. The final solo compulsory dance event was the Inter-Gold and above with Natalie Cannon skating against her old club she exceeded her expectations and placed 2nd with Nicola Roland just missing out again on the bronze medal.
Moving into the Original Set Pattern dances and Freedances also produced some medal success for the
Guernsey team, with Emilia Bianco taking Gold in the Over 16's Inter-Silver event followed closely by Chloe Dyke. With the tally up of the medals won the Guernsey Club was then awarded the Visitors Trophy for the most successful club for the weekend of competition. Coaches Darren Dyke and Jan Le Blond were extremely happy with the effort all the skaters had put in to make this their most successful club competition to date taking 9 trophies in the process.
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Cup Of Europe 2010
A party of four young skaters from the Phoenix Artistic Roller Skating Club have this year been selected to represent Great Britain at the Cup Of Europe Championship held in Catania, Sicily. The qualification for the event came from their individual performances in this year’s British Championships and also their inclusion in the National Training Squad for a 12 month period.
In the espoir category, which is aimed at young skaters between the ages of 10-12, local girls Monica Dekker and Jodene Corbin flew the Guernsey flag at this level. This year a new element has been added to the competition in which they are required to perform a Freedance with a duration of 2 minutes and having a set elements included in the programme. The first section of the competition is two compulsory dances and for this year the selection was the Country Polka and Rhythmn Blues. With both the girls in costume for the first dance they both
skated with great floor coverage and despite this they found the European skaters more flamboyant and unfortunately this being a telling factor in the judges eyes, together with the marks awarded, found themselves out of medal contention. With a more determined approach in the Blues and with good technical work the marks achieved were higher but again over powered by the opposition they were slotted into 10th and 13th place respectively.
Moving to the freedance section both girls had drawn well to avoid setting the standard and Jodene was first to perform for the British skaters and with her medley of songs from the west end hit "Grease" she gave a very good account and was awarded respectable marks from the five international judges, although unable to convince them to move her out of 13th place. Monica chose for her freedance this year a number from "Bugsy Malone" and with her high energy and great interpretation she split the judges on her performance and unfortunately slipped one place to 11th overall.
Accompanying the team were the two Juniors, Chloe Dyke and Emilia Bianco, both very experienced Internationals with both of them having competed at last year’s championships and the 2009 World Championships held in Freiburg. Floor conditions for all the skaters became very frustrating due to the slippery condition and therefore in many cases in the compulsory sections, full attack on the edges was not always possible which reflected in some of the marks awarded. However despite this set back both of them attacked the first Compulsory dance the Blues and Chloe found herself first to skate this and thereby setting the standard for all the others to follow. With some good edge running and sultry performance to reflect the characteristic of the dance, she earned a stream of sevens from the five judges. Emilia also gave a strong performance in the dance but found herself being split by the judges on where to place her in the field. With all to skate for the two girls then approached the HK Tango with passion and vigour to mark some very strong edges and from these performances found their final positions at this stage of the competition being 5th and 13th.
With the pressure mounting on Chloe trying to maintain her 5th and Emilia wishing to move up the field in the free dance the training session found their dress rehearsal with minor issues to iron out. However a slight improvement in the floor condition enabled the girls to increase their overall power in the performance. Both of them found themselves with good draws for this section with Emilia skating 4th in the first group and with her performing all the required elements and giving a passionate performance to her selection of music from "Zorro" she managed to move two places to finish 11th overall.
With Chloe last to skate in the second group, which couldn't be better, as this gave her a good
position to get sufficient marks to hopefully maintain her place. However with the French skater hot on her heels and putting in a strong performance the pressure was on for her to deliver a confident performance. Chloe began her programme "The Mission" with real emotion and beautiful edge skating and then moved into the dramatic and powerful music of the story to end the performance. With a great delivery under her belt she convinced the judges to confirm her position and finished 5th overall.
The junior skaters will now wait for news of whether their performances in this event will be enough for them to be considered for the World Championships being staged in Portugal at the end of November.
The Guernsey skaters will now return home with the intention to strive to greater heights at
European level, despite the lack of regular training slots.
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8th Place for Chloe Dyke at Junior World Championships
Local skater Chloe Dyke gave representation for Great Britain at the recent Junior World Championships held in Portimao, Portugal and in doing so earned herself a very creditable 8th Place amongst the world’s best Artistic Skaters.
Having been selected from her performances and this Year’s British Championships and the Cup Of Europe Event held in October in Sicily, Chloe was very anxious to see what the Oceanic and American regions would be able to bring to the Championships. As always she was not disappointed with very strong competition seen from the American, Brazillian, Argentine and Colombian skaters.
The first two days of the championships is used to acclimatise the skaters to the venue and facilities and although suffering from a winter cold Chloe found herself comfortable with the floor and was looked good in training. Unfortunately with a redraw for the order of skater for her event, due to miscalculation of country participants, Chloe found herself first to skate and therefore setting the standard for the remainder of the competitors to follow. However with her demonstrating a very strong and controlled Blues, in the first dance of the competition, she was placed around mid way in the field. With a determined and precise HK Tango she again earned a good standard of marks with 5 of the world judges placing her in 9th place at this stage of the event.
With the desire to improve on this position in the free dance section, Chloe gave a very strong and dramatic performance of her routine “The Mission” and anxiously watched to see if the remaining skaters close to her could match the performance. With the addition of the compulsory element, Chloe was moved up to 8th Position overall, which highly delighted her coach Darren Dyke, due mainly to the fact that Chloe only receives around a third of the training time compared to the majority of the world competitors in her category.
Chloe will now be preparing for next year’s competitions in the hope that she can again attain a world selection and ranking.
Junior World class skater, Chloe Dyke has just returned from her third world championships this year being staged in Brasilia, Brasil. The 2011 Championships recorded record entries in all the disciplines and in Chloe’s event, the Junior Solo Dance category, she found herself up against 24 other competitors from 16 countries. The Guernsey skater found herself in a dilemma immediately upon arrival in brazil as her luggage was not transferred over from the connecting flight in Lisbon and therefore found herself without her costumes to commence her training. However with the American team to the rescue to provide this Chloe settled in well to the first day of training.
With the arrival of her luggage on the third day, this gave a huge boost to her confidence and with the final day of training coming to a conclusion she had patterned both the compulsory dances and Freedance programme perfectly in readiness for the Championship. With Chloe having drawn 24th to skate in the first dance, the Flirtation Waltz, she demonstrated to the World Judges, excellent edges and beautiful lines and technique in the dance and found herself placed in the middle of the field. With this confident start under her belt she again performed the second compulsory dance with a very controlled manner and earned marks in the mid 7's range. Once all the scores were calculated, Chloe found herself in 13th place but being chased strongly by the south American competitors.
With an early morning training session and the conclusion of the freedance on the same day, Chloe found herself in only the second group of skaters so unfortunately the draw for the order of skating did not go to her advantage and although she skated a good interpretation of Burlesque the challenge from the Argentine skater was too much and Chloe slipped one place to finish in a very creditable 14th place.
Many new experiences are gained from competing at World level and this will further encourage Chloe to evaluate what she needs to concentrate on in order to break into a top 10 ranking. Chloe was kindly supported financially by her very encouraging employee Heritage Insurance Management Limited.
Cup of Europe 2011
Four local skaters from the Phoenix Artistic Roller Skating Club have just returned from the Cup of Europe International staged by the European Committee for Artistic Roller Skating in Bordeaux.
The local skaters attained their places on the British team by their performances at the 2011 British Championships and unfortunately through lack of financial assistance both nationally and locally the attendance to the event has been achieved through self funding.
Jodene Corbin gave representation in the Espoir category which is for skaters 11 & 12 years of age and found herself against some very strong opposition from France with them totally dominating the event. Despite Jodene producing the best performances to date and showing great improvement since the British Championship she placed 10th overall.
Chloe Dyke and Emilia Bianco represented GB in the Junior Category, which this year produced an influx of male competitors due to the ruling being changed which now allows couple skaters to enter this event. Despite a good draw order both Chloe and Emilia showed some good edge skating in the two compulsory dances, although with the floor condition not being to their liking they did not produce the confident performances that would be needed to challenge for the medals. At this stage of the competition they had been placed 9th & 10th respectively. With all to skate for in the Freedance section they really did sell the performances and earned some very respectable marks in doing so. However despite this with the innovative powerful performances that followed them they finally placed, Chloe 9th and Emilia 10th.
The Final Phoenix skater to represent GB was Natalie Cannon who for the first time had earned her place in the team at the Senior Ladies Discipline. With a smooth foxtrot and much improved Iceland Tango Natalie received some decent marks and witnessed the strength of the Italian nation in the event. Despite drawing 1st to skate the Freedance Natalie performed her routine to the best of her ability and set a good standard for the remaining competitors to follow. Watching the top group demonstrated how much more the European nations are training and the Italians showed their domination at this level by taking all three medals. Natalie finished 10th overall.
From this event Chloe Dyke will be leaving on the 12th November for Brasil to represent Great Britain in the Junior world Championship and will hopefully produce some excellent skating with the hope of retaining her 8th place from the 2010 championships.
Maidstone Club Competition 2011
The Phoenix Artistic Roller Skating Club have once again returned from the 2011 Maidstone Club competition by winning the Visitors Cup. This is presented to the club who has amassed the highest number of points awarded to the top 5 placings in the events held over the festival.
This year provided some testing times leading up to the event but especially on the day of departure, due to weather conditions preventing any flights leaving the island before mid-day. This found some members taking the ferry in the morning and the majority not landing in Gatwick until 10pm the night before the event.
Despite the team feeling very tired the following day they dug deep to produce some excellent performances with the Guernsey team taking three victories on that day and medals being won in every event they had entered.
Saturday’s results:-
Non Medallist OSP – Chloe Hutchinson 1st
Non medallist free skating 10 years & Under – Miles Corbin 3rd
Non medallist free skating 13years & over – Lucy Ozard 2nd, Nicola Roland 8th
Adult Freekskating – Natalie Cannon 3rd
Small Club show number – Open Standard – 1st Phoenix – What a Picture – Chloe Dyke, Emilia Bianco, Lucy Ozard, Nicola Roland, Natalie Cannon & Amilie White. 3rd – Phoenix - Naughty Little Boys- Georgina Hockey, Lucy Hockey, Chloe Hutchinson, Elliotte Jordan, Brooke Le Page, Nicola Ayres
Inter Bronze & Bronze Teams – 2nd – Phoenix Flames – Caitlin McNichol, Monica Dekker, Jodene Corbin.
Non Medallists Team – Phoenix Fledglings – Chloe Hutchinson, Elliotte Jordan, Lauren Ingrouille
Elementary & Preliminary Formation Team – 2nd Phoenix Featherweights – Brooke Le Page, Georgina Hockey & Nicola Ayres – 3rd Phoenix Fillies – Laura Bloomfield, Natalie Collas & Marshaine Maubec.
Preliminary & Inter- Bronze OSP – 2nd Monica Dekker, 3rd Jodene Corbin, 10th Catilin McNichol, 11th Brooke le Page, 12th Marshaine Maubec,14th Rhiannon Fitch, 15th Laura Bloomfield,17th Georgina Hockey, 18th Natalie Collas
Inter-Silver & Above Formation Team – 3rd Phoenix Flyers – Chloe Dyke, Emilia Bianco, Natalie Cannon, 9th Phoenix Aces – Nicola Roland,Lucy Ozard, Amilie White
Club show Number – 2nd Place
With the haul of medals from Saturdays competition in hand the team, although very tired, found themselves against some very formidable opposition in the individual events on the Sunday. In some sections the entries were in excess of 50 competitors, which led to heats being held to qualify only 6 skaters for the final. Notable victories in both the OSP and Compulsory dance section where seen by Lucy Ozard in the Inter-silver category and Lauren Ingrouille taking the Non-medallist new comers event.
Sunday’s Results:-
Inter Bronze & Bronze Solo Dance – 3rd Monica Dekker, 6th Caitlin McNichol, 9th Jodene Corbin, 11th Rhiannon Fitch.
Inter-silver & Silver Solo Dance 15 years & under – 1st Lucy Ozard
Inter-silver & silver Solo Dance 16 years & over – 5th Amilie White, 10th Danielle Queru
Inter-Gold & Above Solo Dance – 2nd Chloe Dyke, 5th Natalie Cannon, 6th Emilia Bianco, 10th Nicola Roland
Free Dance 18 years & Under – 2nd Chloe Dyke, 4th Emilia Bianco
Newcomers Solo Dance – 1st Lauren Ingrouille
Non medallists Solo Dance – 3rd Elliotte Jordan, 7th Chloe Dyke
OSP Bronze & Inter- silver – 1st Lucy Ozard, 11th Amillie White, 19th Danielle Queru
Silver and Above Freedance – 4th Natalie Cannon, 6th Nicola Roland
Youth/Junior & Senior British Championships 2011
A local contingent of Guernsey skaters have returned from the 2011 British Solo Dance Championships with three individuals earning themselves places on the European Team for the Cup of Europe Event being staged in Bordeaux in November.
Lucy Ozard gave representation in the Youth category and found this years competition to an exceptionally high standard and although showing some great edge skating and style of the Terenzi Waltz and Imperial Tango she found herself in 5th place at this stage of the competition. Selecting a new freedance for 2011 Lucy’s interpretation of “The Iron Mask” was well received by the judges with two of them placing her 3rd overall, however once the calculations were finalised she had narrowly missed out on the bronze medal and finished in a very creditable 4th place.
The junior section of the Championships witnessed the clash of the titans with four very talented skaters fighting it out for the medals. Chloe Dyke and Emilia Bianco representing Guernsey at this level. Emilia drew 1st to skate the compulsory dance section and set a very good standard in the Flirtation waltz for the remaining competitors to follow. Chloe challenged her fellow team member with the judges awarding her mid sevens for the dance and placing her in 2nd place at this point in the competition. With the Guernsey girls wanting to prove themselves in the 2nd dance, the Rocker Foxtrot, they demonstrated the best rocker turn of all the competitors. Despite this the judges awarded slightly higher marks to the male skaters, due to the strength of edges they executed and therefore Chloe and Emilia found themselves in 2nd and 4th place respectively. The second day of competition was the freedance element and again despite some excellent performances from the Guernsey girls they were unable to convince the judges to place them higher and they both retained their positions from the compulsory round.
The final event for the Guernsey Team was the Senior Solo Dance Championships where three Phoenix skaters made challenge for the title. Kirsty Chick launched her Solo Dance career following her retirement in 2009 from Couples skating and nursing a major foot injury she skated with pure grit and determination to finish in a very creditable 10th place. Nicola Roland again found the opposition very tough at this level and performed some very confident compulsory dances and a clean freedance and placed 12th overall. Natalie Cannon placed some very smooth compulsory dances and found herself in 4th place at this stage of the competition . With good marks being achieved in the freedance section she managed to retain a top slot by finishing 5th overall.
Chloe, Emilia and Natalie have since received invitations to skate for Great Britain at the Cup of Europe Competition being held in France in November and Chloe has also made world selection for her 3rd successive year at Junior level and will travel to Brasilia in November to hopefully improve on her 8th place attained last year.
Tots/Minis & Elementary Dance Championships 2011
A team of 5 skaters have just returned from this year’s British Championships held in Peterborough for the Tots, Mini and Elementary Dance Championships.
Miles Corbin aged 7 competed in his first ever Free Skating event, the first Guernsey skater on record to enter a national event at this discipline. With only two months to prepare for the event, Miles has recently mastered several jumps and spins to create a programme with music from “Karate Kid”. Although very nervous and with a clean performance of his two minute programme, Miles was able to win the silver medal which has now inspired him to work on more difficult elements for next year’s Championships.
With one silver medal in the bag Miles was now to face a field of over 25 other skaters to try to retain the Tots Dance Championship he won in 2010. However despite a strong performance by him, with a couple of errors made in the dances, Miles was edged out of the victory slot but earned a respectable silver medal against a very strong field of skaters.
Lucy Hockey was selected this year by attaining the Elementary dance Medal qualification in January. With no preconceived ideas she skated three dances to a very good standard, showing the judges her ability to produce a solid and proficient performance. Finishing in 5th place out of the 24 competitors. Lucy has been truly inspired by this experience and is already planning how she will move into the medal positions in 2012.
The Elementary Dance Championships this year certainly had its ups and downs for the local club with defending champion, Monica Dekker, falling in her first compulsory dance to find herself slotting into 5th place after the two dances. Both Caitlin McNichol and Jodene Corbin placed some very careful dances on what was a very slippery surface found themselves in 2nd and 3rd respectively. With nothing to lose for all three girls they skated with real determination to gain a higher place with the compulsory and freedance marks added together. Jodene had recently changed her freedance from Grease to Jai Ho following a successful debut of the programme at the recent Eisteddfod and she really pleased the crowd with her rendition of this very popular song. Caitlin placed a more dramatic focus on her freedance with music extracts from the Mummy, although suffering with a knee injury placed a safe performance for the judges to evaluate. Finally Monica was last to skate and with so much to prove to herself she made an excellent start to her freedance. The music was taken from Sister Act and in the last 45 seconds the errors started to creep in. Due to this she did not alter her placing once the final result was known. Jodene’s efforts paid due rewards with her moving into the silver medal position but Caitlin was edged out into 4th place. The result has certainly highlighted the lack of training at the local leisure centre which has hampered the ability to polish their routines to the required standard. However they have all learnt so much from this experience and will put this to good use for future competitions.
Spring Solo Competition 2011 Report
The Phoenix Artistic Roller skating club has recently sent 22 skaters to compete in the 2011 Spring Solo Competitions staged by the National Federation and held over a two day period in Haywards Heath . The objective for the Club was to win The Robinson Club Shield which is awarded to the Club which attains the most points over the two days of competition, this works on the basis of 1st place being awarded 10 points down to 1 point for 10th place. With this goal in mind the Guernsey skaters were very busy in preparing for the event, with many of the lessons having to be conducted away from their regular times at Beau Sejour Leisure Centre, due to the ever increasing events which are now taking over the main sports hall facilities.
Saturday’s events were set aside for all the solo standard events. The Guernsey skaters found themselves in elimination rounds with only the top 6 at each level progressing to a Grand Final. In the non-medallist event three Phoenix skaters found themselves making into the final eliminating 74 other skaters in the process, Guernsey dominated the top three places with Brooke Le Page winning the event, Nicola Ayres in 2nd and Georgina Hockey in 3rd. Dovanna Folmi and Elliotte Jordan made it into the semi finals of this class.
In the Preliminary standard Caitlin McNichol and Marshaine Maubec made the semi finals, whilst Monica Dekker and Jodene Corbin edged their way into the finals, with Monica taking another Phoenix victory and Jodene finishing in 5th place. The Bronze standard was a very tough event for the Guernsey skaters with Amelie White making it into a very strong semi final round. Lucy Ozard was very unfortunate in the Inter-Silver standard by just finishing out of the medals in 4th place and following this saw the Clash of the Titans with the Silver medallists and over competing for the 6 slots available. Both Natalie Cannon and Emilia Bianco fought their way into the Semi-finals with Chloe Dyke making into the last six and finishing in 3rd place.
The final events on the Saturday were the Bronze and Intersilver and above Duo’s in which Hannah Dyke and Amillie White finished in 5th in the Bronze category, with Chloe and Emilia winning a silver medal in the higher standard.
With a good days results under their belt the Phoenix skaters were placed well on the score board for the elusive Shield.
With confidence running high Sunday’s events saw some excellent performances from the Guernsey team. Unfortunately due to the number of competitors and events to be run, the Phoenix Club found themselves having to leave the event at 6pm in order to catch their return flights home. In doing so they found themselves missing four events, which understandably frustrated them as new routines and costumes had been made for these events. However despite this setback the results that followed indicated that the Club had done extremely well and had accumulated a massive 208 points to clinch victory, over two very strong London Clubs, to be awarded the Robinson Club Shield, which was won by the Club in 1995 and 2004. With the skaters not being present to receive their medals they have recently taken delivery of the very much deserved trophies. The results for Sunday are:-
Non medallists OSP – Brooke Le Page, 1st ,Georgina Hockey 5th, Chloe Hutchinson 10th
Preliminary Medallists under12 OSP Jodene Corbin 1st, Monica Dekker 2nd, Caitlin McNichol 5th
Preliminary Medallists Over 13 – Laura Bloomfield 5th, Natalie Collas 7th, Marshaine Maubec 11th
Bronze OSP – Amillie White 5th , Hannah Dyke 7th, Danielle Queru 9th
Teams of Three
Preliminary – 1st Phoenix Aces, Monica Dekker, Jodene Corbin, Caitlin McNichol
7th – Phoenix Fillies – Laura Bloomfield, Marshaine Maubec, Natalie Collas
Inter-silver & Above – 2nd Phoenix Airwaves – Chloe Dyke, Emilia Bianco, Natalie Cannon, 3rd Darren Dyke, Lucy Ozard, Nicola Roland
Duos
Non Medallists – Nicola Ayres & Dovanna Folmi 3rd, Brooke Le Page & Georgina Hockey 4th, Heat 2 – Chloe Hutchinson and Elliotte Jordan 4th
Preliminary – Jodene Corbin & Monica Dekker 2nd, Caitlin McNichol & Marshaine Maubec 3rd, Natalie Collas & Laura Bloomfield 4th
TOTS & ESPOIR BRITISH CHAMPIONSHIPS 2010
Five young members of the Phoenix Artistic Roller Skating Club have recently returned with two British titles amongst them. The young contingency from Guernsey travelled to Peterborough to compete in the 2010 British Artistic Roller Skating Championships for their respective age groups.
Miles Corbin was the youngest member of the group at just having turned 7 two days before the competition, was experiencing his first British Championship at the Tots level. He was required to skate two compulsory dances and in order to achieve being crowned British Champion had to reach a standard recognised and set by the governing body. Although this year was meant to be a learning curve for Miles he skated perfectly in time and with some strong edges, which was recognised by the three judges, gave him just enough marks to be awarded the British title!!!
The remaining skaters in the Guernsey party were four young Espoir skaters and although in the past there has been some good opposition from the mainland it was going to be interesting on which Guernsey girls came out on top! In this category they were required to perform two compulsory dances with, what was a new element for them in 2010, a two minute freedance.
Caitlin McNichol certainly stamped her mark on the compulsory dances with earning the only 7’s awarded during the competition and found herself leading the field with Monica Dekker closely behind her in 2nd and Jodene Corbin again hot on both their heels in 3rd place. Rhiannon Fitch also performed exceptionally well and placed 6th and this stage of the competition.
With Rhiannon being drawn in the second group she skated first for the Guernsey team in the freedfance section and with her compilation of Michael Jacksons songs she earned sufficient marks to place her in the top ten by finishing in 9th place. With the three remaining Phoenix skaters positioned in the top group, Jodene was first to perform and gave a good account for herself in her routine “Alladin” waiting anxiously to see how her fellow team members would perform. Monica followed the performance and gained the highest marks on the interpretation side with her programme “Bugsy Malone”. Caitlin was last to perform and with her jive routine she also earned very consistent marks and once the total marks for the entire competition were calculated, Monica had pushed Caitlin into 2nd position by one judge, which reflected what an exciting competition this had been to watch, but moreover a Guernsey skater winning another British title. Jodene regrettably found herself also loosing the bronze medal position by a very narrow margin. However Darren Dyke who accompanied the skaters was extremely proud of how all the skaters had performed throughout the championships, which reflected on the high standard the Guernsey team produced and the titles that were won!
Youth British Solo Dance Championships 2010.
Lucy Ozard the sole representative at this years Youth British Championships has just returned from a successful competition with her first year at this level of competition. The 2010 Championships were staged in Maidstone, Kent and this year attracted 13 entries from around the UK, with the skaters being challenged to perform two compulsory dances and a freedance lasting 2 ½ minutes.
Saturday saw the two compulsory dances being skated and although in the European Waltz Lucy demonstrated some excellent technique she failed to impress the judges enough to place her in medal contention, however with an improved performance in the Keats Foxtrot she moved herself to within striking distance of the top places by having two of the judges placing her 3rd at that stage of the competition.
The Sunday saw the climax of the Championship with Lucy having just missed out on the top group and having to skate 1st in the second group, placing her under more pressure to challenge for the bronze medal. Despite this Lucy skated her Latin routine to the best of her ability and showed great feel for the rhythms being played. With a top mark of 7.6 for manner of performance she was able to keep two of the judges placing her in 3rd, but with the remaining three placing her in 5th , this became her final placing.
It was a great experience for Lucy to compete at this level and has highlighted areas of improvement in order for her to challenge next year for a medal.
British Junior & Senior Dance Championships 2010
A small team of skaters from the Phoenix Artistic Roller Skating Club have returned to compete for another year at the 2010 British Championships held in Haywards Heath. Two Junior members namely Emilia Bianco and Chloe Dyke participated in the Junior Solo Dance Championships in which Emilia was defending her British Title. With the skaters both familiar with the venue they were very quick to make themselves comfortable with the floor conditions and with both of them putting in a strong performance in the Blues they found themselves splitting the judges and sharing the top spot. However in the HK Tango Emilia showed true character in the dance and placed a very strong and dramatic performance to clinch the Gold position at this stage with Chloe moving comfortably into 2nd.
Moving in to the free dance section would decide the title between the Guernsey girls and with both the programmes being quite different it was going to challenge the judges on splitting this talented duo.
Chloe was first to skate in the final group and although it was not one of her strongest performances to date she managed to earn some respectable marks and laid down the gauntlet for the others to follow. With this in mind Emilia raised her game and with performing, what is her most suited programme to date, she came out with great passion and strength and wowed both the audience and judges to retain her Junior Title with Chloe claiming the silver medal. With this result the two talented skaters have now been given a selection to represent Great Britain in the Cup of Europe, this year being staged in the Island of Sicily where based on their performance they will see whether they can earn themselves a place on the World team.
Accompanying the Juniors were two Senior Solo dancers, namely Natalie Cannon and Nicola Roland.
Natalie is new to the Guernsey shores and is giving her first outing at a British Championship under the Phoenix banner, Whilst Nicola was competing in her third Championships. Both of them found the opposition quite formidable this year and despite performing some reasonable compulsory dances found themselves at the lower end of the competition. With nothing to lose they pushed the free dance section to the best of their abilities and in doing so made a few stumbles in their routines which impacted their manner of performance mark and dropped them into the final places of Natalie 13th and Nicola 15th.
Maidstone Club Competition 2010
The Phoenix Artistic Roller Skating Club have just returned from a very successful outing at the Maidstone Open competition where 22 local skaters competed in the event, this being one of the largest teams ever sent from the Island. With the mixture of total beginners up to International standard this was going to be a very interesting two days of competition.
The first day saw most of the show number events take place and victory came in the small groups section with the six senior girls performing an extract from Chicago called the "Six Deadly Dames". With good team work and a difficult routine put together with great interpretation of the number the locals held off the challenge from the Maidstone Club. The winning team consisted of, Emilia Bianco, Chloe Dyke, Hannah Dyke, Nicola Roland, Natalie Cannon and Amilie White. The two more junior teams fell short of the Bronze medal by finishing 5th and 6th respectively.
In the large teams a full member cast was submitted by the Phoenix Club and with their extract from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang they were this time beaten into 2nd place by the very polished routine from the Maidstone Club. Although disappointing for the club the standard of this event was exceptional this year and the result could have gone either way.
In the formation team events this proved to be an exceptional category for the Club with the Guensey talent winning three out of the four team events with the Non medallist team of Alex Dekker, Brooke Le Page and Georgina Hockey taking the first victory followed by the Phoenix Flyers Elementary/Preliminary team consisting of Caitlin McNichol, Jodene Corbin and Monica Dekker. In the Bronze team category the team made an unfortunate error in the first dance which then placed them just outside the medals but with a much more confident and intricate formation in the Tango they pushed themselves into the Bronze medal position. The final standard category was the Inter-silver and above and with a very together team of Emilia Bianco, Natalie Cannon and Chloe Dyke they surpassed the opposition and took the crown that had been constantly won by the local Maidstone skaters for many years.
To round off the medal success of the first day Lucy Ozard and Nicola Roland competed in the
non medallists free skating event and with both of them having such experience in the dance format they were able to compete with the top group and after their confident performances Lucy won the silver with Nicola just missing out on the Bronze medal.
Following the success of the first day’s competition it was with great anticipation for the team as to what could be achieved, especially as the competition would show the talents of the solo skaters. First event of the day was the newcomers which following the elimination process both Chloe Hutchinson and Lucy Hockey found themselves in the final six out of 48 starters. Despite a brave effort they finish 5th and 6th respectively which is a major achievement in their first mainland competition. The more experienced Non medallists again had a competition some 60 entries strong and once again four phoenix skaters progressed through the rounds with Nicola Ayres making the quarter final and the three remaining skaters making it through to the final six. With all to skate for the event was won by local girl Brooke Le Page with fellow team member Alex Dekker in 2nd and Georgina Hocky in 4th. Nearly a clean sweep for the Phoenix crew! The Elementary/Preliminary category witnessed yet another victory for Phoenix, with Caitlin McNichol producing a very strong performance to take Gold and Monica Dekker the silver. Bronze standard saw Amilie White just miss out on the Gold medal taking second and Lucy Ozard in the under 16 Inter Silver skated to win the Bronze medal. Moving on to the over 16's the Guernsey team of Chloe Dyke and Emilia Bianco took 1st and 2nd in the event showing their continued dominance at this standard. The final solo compulsory dance event was the Inter-Gold and above with Natalie Cannon skating against her old club she exceeded her expectations and placed 2nd with Nicola Roland just missing out again on the bronze medal.
Moving into the Original Set Pattern dances and Freedances also produced some medal success for the
Guernsey team, with Emilia Bianco taking Gold in the Over 16's Inter-Silver event followed closely by Chloe Dyke. With the tally up of the medals won the Guernsey Club was then awarded the Visitors Trophy for the most successful club for the weekend of competition. Coaches Darren Dyke and Jan Le Blond were extremely happy with the effort all the skaters had put in to make this their most successful club competition to date taking 9 trophies in the process.
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Cup Of Europe 2010
A party of four young skaters from the Phoenix Artistic Roller Skating Club have this year been selected to represent Great Britain at the Cup Of Europe Championship held in Catania, Sicily. The qualification for the event came from their individual performances in this year’s British Championships and also their inclusion in the National Training Squad for a 12 month period.
In the espoir category, which is aimed at young skaters between the ages of 10-12, local girls Monica Dekker and Jodene Corbin flew the Guernsey flag at this level. This year a new element has been added to the competition in which they are required to perform a Freedance with a duration of 2 minutes and having a set elements included in the programme. The first section of the competition is two compulsory dances and for this year the selection was the Country Polka and Rhythmn Blues. With both the girls in costume for the first dance they both
skated with great floor coverage and despite this they found the European skaters more flamboyant and unfortunately this being a telling factor in the judges eyes, together with the marks awarded, found themselves out of medal contention. With a more determined approach in the Blues and with good technical work the marks achieved were higher but again over powered by the opposition they were slotted into 10th and 13th place respectively.
Moving to the freedance section both girls had drawn well to avoid setting the standard and Jodene was first to perform for the British skaters and with her medley of songs from the west end hit "Grease" she gave a very good account and was awarded respectable marks from the five international judges, although unable to convince them to move her out of 13th place. Monica chose for her freedance this year a number from "Bugsy Malone" and with her high energy and great interpretation she split the judges on her performance and unfortunately slipped one place to 11th overall.
Accompanying the team were the two Juniors, Chloe Dyke and Emilia Bianco, both very experienced Internationals with both of them having competed at last year’s championships and the 2009 World Championships held in Freiburg. Floor conditions for all the skaters became very frustrating due to the slippery condition and therefore in many cases in the compulsory sections, full attack on the edges was not always possible which reflected in some of the marks awarded. However despite this set back both of them attacked the first Compulsory dance the Blues and Chloe found herself first to skate this and thereby setting the standard for all the others to follow. With some good edge running and sultry performance to reflect the characteristic of the dance, she earned a stream of sevens from the five judges. Emilia also gave a strong performance in the dance but found herself being split by the judges on where to place her in the field. With all to skate for the two girls then approached the HK Tango with passion and vigour to mark some very strong edges and from these performances found their final positions at this stage of the competition being 5th and 13th.
With the pressure mounting on Chloe trying to maintain her 5th and Emilia wishing to move up the field in the free dance the training session found their dress rehearsal with minor issues to iron out. However a slight improvement in the floor condition enabled the girls to increase their overall power in the performance. Both of them found themselves with good draws for this section with Emilia skating 4th in the first group and with her performing all the required elements and giving a passionate performance to her selection of music from "Zorro" she managed to move two places to finish 11th overall.
With Chloe last to skate in the second group, which couldn't be better, as this gave her a good
position to get sufficient marks to hopefully maintain her place. However with the French skater hot on her heels and putting in a strong performance the pressure was on for her to deliver a confident performance. Chloe began her programme "The Mission" with real emotion and beautiful edge skating and then moved into the dramatic and powerful music of the story to end the performance. With a great delivery under her belt she convinced the judges to confirm her position and finished 5th overall.
The junior skaters will now wait for news of whether their performances in this event will be enough for them to be considered for the World Championships being staged in Portugal at the end of November.
The Guernsey skaters will now return home with the intention to strive to greater heights at
European level, despite the lack of regular training slots.
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8th Place for Chloe Dyke at Junior World Championships
Local skater Chloe Dyke gave representation for Great Britain at the recent Junior World Championships held in Portimao, Portugal and in doing so earned herself a very creditable 8th Place amongst the world’s best Artistic Skaters.
Having been selected from her performances and this Year’s British Championships and the Cup Of Europe Event held in October in Sicily, Chloe was very anxious to see what the Oceanic and American regions would be able to bring to the Championships. As always she was not disappointed with very strong competition seen from the American, Brazillian, Argentine and Colombian skaters.
The first two days of the championships is used to acclimatise the skaters to the venue and facilities and although suffering from a winter cold Chloe found herself comfortable with the floor and was looked good in training. Unfortunately with a redraw for the order of skater for her event, due to miscalculation of country participants, Chloe found herself first to skate and therefore setting the standard for the remainder of the competitors to follow. However with her demonstrating a very strong and controlled Blues, in the first dance of the competition, she was placed around mid way in the field. With a determined and precise HK Tango she again earned a good standard of marks with 5 of the world judges placing her in 9th place at this stage of the event.
With the desire to improve on this position in the free dance section, Chloe gave a very strong and dramatic performance of her routine “The Mission” and anxiously watched to see if the remaining skaters close to her could match the performance. With the addition of the compulsory element, Chloe was moved up to 8th Position overall, which highly delighted her coach Darren Dyke, due mainly to the fact that Chloe only receives around a third of the training time compared to the majority of the world competitors in her category.
Chloe will now be preparing for next year’s competitions in the hope that she can again attain a world selection and ranking.