British Skating News, 2022 and beyond

[Karen-W]

Davison/Borisov and Ritchie/McLeod are both new teams with one partner who is new to pairs, and neither looked really ready to compete. D/B's individual elements were looking good, but they were struggling putting it all together in their programmes. And a spectacular waxel combo from Daniel! They are also using a truly dreadful Postmodern Jukebox-style cover of Lovefool in the SP. Just skate to the Cardigans! Individually, Kyle McLeod looked like the strongest pair skater in this competition, but R/M just need more time. I would still give them the final JGP spot though.

Agreed. There is no sense in wasting the 4th spot and I think that RitMcL are comparable to DavBor at this point, so it seems fair for each of them to have 1 JGP assignment. WoodLap have 2 already and certainly showed that they warrant those assignments. I don't expect them to be competing for the podium at either of their JGPs but their throw 3S was really impressive.

 

[Belsornia]

Two more new pairs teams in the entry list for the October Qualifier, published on BIS Sportity account:

• Isla Shenton / Joel Kirby (Advanced Novice) - not the dude from Love Island but the 2022 Adv Nov champion (with Jessica Hennessy). Shenton is new to pairs but has been competing in Adv Nov singles, with some decent results but no 2ax. I think he's too old for novice internationally, but for the best that they don't try to compete elements they aren't ready for.
• Amy-Jayne Robson / Mackenzie Reid (Basic Novice) - I think they're from Aberdeen, and she has also been competing Adv Nov singles.

Coley/Casey are also listed in AdvNov pairs - I'm glad they're still together. I was expecting them to move up and I think he's also aged out of international novice, but he's been withdrawing from singles competitions so maybe they've had some injury issues.

So if everyone stays together for another 3 months we should have 10 or 11 pairs at the British Championships! (3 Basic Novice, 2 Advanced Novice, 4 Junior, 1/2 Senior - I have Smart/Mattick as status unknown at the moment, if anyone knows that they're planning to compete this season, please let me know!)

No dance at the October Qualifier; there's a separate event in November but the last couple of years it's been cancelled and everyone given a bye to the British.