Medal success in Haywards Heath

THREE Guernsey skaters have achieved more medal success at the British Championships, held this year in Haywards Heath. And as a added bonus, Darren Dyke and Kirsty Chick were rewarded with senior European selection.

Nicola Roland competed for the first time at this level in the junior solo dance and really showed the judges how good a technician she is.

In the compulsory dances, she skated the blues and imperial tango and following some excellent edge definition, especially in the tango, she was in a very comfortable fourth place and with two of the judges placing her first at this stage of the competition.

Moving into the free-dance section and warming up with the top group gave Roland a lot of confidence so when she performed her routine she put in a very powerful display with good highlights to her programme from 'Pirates of the Caribbean', which secured her fourth place overall.

Following on from Roland's success, Dyke and Chick competed in their second Senior British Championship and were eager to prove to the skating fraternity how much they had improved since last year's event.

In the compulsory dance section they were required to perform two gold dances, namely the Starlight Waltz and Iceland Tango and having to start the first, they set a good standard for the other competitors to follow.

In the tango the Guernsey couple displayed some good edge control and technique and with that managed to slot themselves into second place.

Later in the day they were again on the rink, this time demonstrating their interpretation of this year's original dance tempo the cha cha.

Despite the pair's good performance the judges came together to discuss the technicalities of the content and when the marks were awarded, they had been deducted some due to the lack of coverage of the step sequence.

However, with the marks from the compulsory, they were still in silver-medal position.

This year's free dance chosen by Dyke and Chick is based on the swing rhythm and it thereby showed the true dance ability of this couple.

By drawing last to skate this section, they had a significant amount of pressure placed on them following good performances by the London-based couples.

However, with a positive and fast-moving programme, they secured enough marks to keep them in second place and from that they secured European selection.