 Poster: A snowHead
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Don't know if anyone is following this but here's some info.
| BOA NEWS ALERT wrote: |
Kerrs Begin With a Personal Best
Figure skaters John and Sinead Kerr produced a personal best performance of 37.02 in the compulsory dance to earn eighth place ahead of the original and free skating elements of the ice dancing competition at the Pacific Colisuem in Vancouver. Teammates Penny Coomes and Nick Buckland lie in 21st position.
John was pleased with their performance, he said: “It was fine, it was fun. We skated pretty good and we were pretty happy with it. We’re confident we can build on this and we’re pretty tight with the two teams above us so hopefully we can have two more clean skates and see what happens. The experience of the Turin Olympic Games four years ago means we’re a little bit more ready for it this time.”
Sinead added: “I felt pretty relaxed actually. The crowd had a really warm energy and it feel like that energy kind of poured onto the ice. We’ve been training really well leading up to this and we’ve got a personal best so we can’t ask for more than that. It’s a really tough competition but we always knew there was a group of nine or ten skaters who could win it so we’ve kept ourselves in there.
“We’ve got some good crowd pleasing routines to come so that’s when we hope everyone will get excited and get behind us. We just need to keep relaxed, not get too tight and nervous thinking about it being the Olympic Games and just skate how we know we can skate.”
In reaction to Amy Willams claiming the gold medal for Team GB in the women’s skeleton, John said: “It’s fantastic for Team GB, we’re not really a big winter sports nation so a medal of any colour for us is a great achievement.”
Sinead added: “We actually watched it just before we came out to skate so it was great to get a chance to see her and to give us motivation to go forwards as well.”
Earlier in the day Team GB figure skaters Penny Coomes and Nick Buckland made their Olympic debut in the same competition. The pair, both 20 and from Nottingham, scored 25.68 in the compulsory dance, skated to Tango Romantica.
Coomes said of her first appearance on Olympic ice: “I’m generally pleased; it’s very different being at the Olympic Games with all the top skaters and the big crowd so maybe we were a little bit more tentative than we are in practice but we’ve got a lot to look forward to in the rest of the competition”
Buckland agreed: “It’s good to get that under our belt. It’s been our first time doing the compulsory dance in front of such a big crowd, so it was a great experience. You obviously prepare as well as you can do, so it’s nice when you get here, get your costumes on and it all falls into place.”
Coomes added: “When the stadium announcer said there were 320 million people watching on television we both kind of looked at each other and said ‘no pressure then!’ It’s really great that there’s so many people watching and it’s fantastic for our sport if it gets more people watching European and World Championships next year.”
Looking ahead to the rest of the competition Buckland said: “We’ve got to really attack our next two dances. We probably shine more in the original and free dance and we’re more comfortable with them. All we can do is try to skate our best. Our original dance is to Irish theme folk music which will show the contrast between slow and fast skating with some good lifts in there so hopefully it’ll really get the crowd going and be a crowd pleaser.”
Both pairs next compete in the original dance on Sunday 21st February before concluding their programmes in the free dance the following day.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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is dull
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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bertie bassett, to you maybe but I like it, so thanks, Dwarf Vader, for the news.
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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maggi Thanks, I'm trying to cover all GB interest. I know I missed some 
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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Dwarf Vader, Thanks, I watch the skating, in fact right now!
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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| BOA NEWS ALERT wrote: |
Team GB Ice Dancers Thrill Vancouver Crowdl
Team GB ice dancers John and Sinead Kerr produced a typically exuberant performance in the original dance today. They received excellent support from the crowd and scored 56.76 to give them a total score of 93.78 and 8th place overall.
Teammates Penny Coomes and Nick Buckland also won rapturous applause from the capacity crowd in Pacific Coliseum for their Riverdance inspired original dance. They scored 46.33, giving them 20th place with a total score so far of 72.01.
The free dance brings the competition to its conclusion tomorrow.
John Kerr said: “There are a lot of great teams here, so you just have to give it your best and do it for the audience too so, everyone has a good time. It’s hugely important to get the crowd support.”
Sinead Kerr added: I think we’re doing pretty good. One of the good things about having competed in an Olympic Games before is that I actually feel a lot less stressed and nervous than I did in Turin. You learn from experience and you’ve got to enjoy the experience because it only comes around once every four years. Throwing John over my shoulder at one point was pretty good fun!”
Describing their performance and the positive reaction of the crowd Buckland said:
“That was the best experience of my life. The support of the crowd was the biggest thing to take away. As well as pleasing the judges that is what the performance is for.”
A modest Coomes said the musical selection added to the crowd enjoyment: “I think it was partly because we picked an upbeat tune in Riverdance and it’s quite popular globally. Because of our height difference we can play around with the lifts quite a lot too.
“Our score was a little down on our Europeans but we’re skating against, and being compared with the very best skaters in the world here, so it’s pleasing that we scored nearly as highly again in this company.
“This is our first full international season so it’s fantastic for us to get this exposure now and it will definitely help to get our faces known.”
Looking ahead to tomorrow’s free dance Buckland said: “We’re going for something slightly more classical and emotional in the free dance, a bit of a contrast from the original. There’s a good range of lifts in there again so hopefully that’ll please the crowd again.”
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| BOA NEWS ALERT wrote: |
Team GB Skaters Dance on Olympic Ice
Scottish siblings John and Sinead Kerr produced another spectacular performance at the Pacific Coliseum to record a season’s best in the free skate section of the ice dancing competition. Skating to music by Linkin Park they scored 92.23 to give them a total of 186.01 and 8th place in the final standings.
Asked about the youth appeal of their performance Sinead said: “We’ve always wanted to push skating forward and encourage young people to do it. Kids look at snowboarding and say ‘that’s cool’ and it’s the Linkin Park generation so we want to show them that you can ice dance to modern music as well, it doesn’t have to be classical. I thought we skated it a lot better than we have done at any competition so far this year. There was a little mistake in the twizzle at the start but we put it behind us and I was pleased at the fact we pushed on even stronger afterwards.”
Looking to the future John said: “We’ll definitely do the World Championships and then decide what our plans are after that. We’ve always taken things on a year-to-year basis. We always try and skate as well as we possibly can, so it’s disappointing not to place higher but we’ve given it everything we can so you can’t complain too much after that.”
Fellow Team GB ice dancers Nick Buckland and Penny Coomes gained a personal best score of 71.60 in the free skate to conclude their competition with a total score of 143.61, finishing in 20th position. The 20-year-olds from Nottingham were very pleased with their Olympic debut and were well received by both the crowd and the judges.
Coomes said: “It was a bit nerve wracking today. We did so well yesterday that I felt we had a lot to live up to today, so we felt a little bit more pressure as the crowd were already cheering for us and we wanted to show them a good performance. But we relaxed in to it and by the end I felt really calm and confident.
“We got really good level scores on our lifts and step sequences and we’re really pleased with that. I think that’s the best technical marks that we’ve had so far. That was our goal and that’s what we’ve been working on in practice. We didn’t really achieve that yesterday, so we’re pleased to have got the technical scores today.”
Buckland added: “The lifts are one of our strongest points so when it comes to the lifts in the programme we try to really go for it and apply a lot of speed into them, so we’re pleased with them.”
“We sat down earlier this year to plan out our careers and the targets we want to hit. This has been the best start possible and it’s going to help us in future. Every year we want to improve and it’d be great to get a top-ten finish at Sochi 2014 as a stepping stone to hopefully medalling at major championships in the future.
“We find out on 24th if we’re selected for the World Championships in Turin. We’ve done the best we can possibly do here and at the European Championships so it would be a fantastic bonus for the season if we can go to the World Championships too.”
Looking ahead Coomes said: “We’ve definitely decided to move to train in America permanently. We’ve qualified for the Olympics but the next step for us is to go there, train as full time athletes and train with one of the best coaches in the world (Russian double Olympic Champion Evgeny Platov). We feel really happy and confident in what he teaches us and I think that comes across in our skating. We’re very eager to learn and happy out there. It’s tough being away from home though, that’s the hardest thing, but we’ve both got really supportive families.”
Commenting about training with John and Sinead Kerr in the build up to Vancouver she said: “It’s really good to train with the Kerrs because they’re such lovely people and everything that we’re going through - moving coaches, going out to America and competing on the world level stage – they’ve been through it all. We’re lucky to train with them and get tips from them.“
Sinead Kerr has been impressed by teammates Penny Coomes and Nick Buckland, she said: “For us it’s great to be in the position of mentor because we see a lot of potential in them and we would definitely be willing to help them a bit into the future and get to where we are and beyond.”
For now, Coomes is keen to get a taste of Sochi 2014 and support her Team GB teammates: “I’ve been looking out of our apartment and i’ve seen that big Sochi 2014 building and I want to go! I also want to go and see Team GB athletes in the other sports because some of them came and supported us so we want to support them too.”
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