Perse pupil gets her skates on for national success
Annika (Year 8) kept her cool on the ice to help her synchronised skating team to national success.
She is part of the Lee Valley Skating Club’s Stardust team that won the beginners’ category at the Britannia Cup in Nottingham with their routine, based on a medley of songs around the theme ‘happy’.
“It’s hard to say how it’s going when you’re performing because you can only control what you’re doing and don’t really focus on other people on the team,” said Annika.
“After the performance, I really wasn’t sure how we had done, but I was really happy when we won because the Stardust team has never come in first place before and it has been going for 15 years.”
Synchronised skating sees teams of between nine and 16 skaters combine close co-ordination with a demonstration of their skills on the ice, with a judging panel considering the synchronicity, presentation and difficulty of performances.
As an extremely technical sport, Annika works closely with her team, travelling to London every Saturday to train with them, as well as doing individual practice twice a week to improve her own skating.
She said: “Our team has 12 skaters and we have a captain who calls the programme over the sound of the music and tells everybody what to do. There are lots of elements that are taken into account by the judges, so everyone has to work individually to become a better skater and as a group to become a better team.
“Every week we start with an hour of off-ice training, making any changes that are necessary to the routine, and we are then on the ice for one to two hours, depending on how close we are to a competition, going through the programme. After that, we do an hour of fitness work, running laps around the outside of the rink and a lot of other exercises, such as sit-ups and planks.
“I like skating because I just enjoy being able to go very fast and being on the ice feels really natural to me. Although I want to keep on getting better as a skater, it’s just a fun hobby and a great skill to have because it has improved my flexibility and fitness.”