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document.write('<span class="style3">Championships - Haywards Heath - July 2009</span></p> ');

document.write('<span class="bodytext"><p>Championship weekend was held at Haywards Heath in Sussex where it was extremely hot the whole time. We had two skaters doing assessments for Cup of Europe: these were September who qualified from Espoir Championships and had to perform the Swing Foxtrot as well as the Canasta Tango, and Emma who had taken third place in the Youth Championships but still had to be assessed on her Terenzi Wlatz and Kilian.  Although both skated well considering the heat, etc. neither were selected.  Fortunately Emma still has a place for this prestigious event being held in Portugal because she qualified for freeskating. <br>');

document.write('Katie entered the Classic 30 and under Championship. She did the Imperial Tango, Tudor Waltz and Skaters March and looked great in a purple dress, with chiffon, trimmed with appligues and stones. All dances were strong and achieved good marks and Katie was delighted to be placed third.<br> ');

document.write('Karen entered in Masters Classic and skated the Rythym Blues, Skaters March and Glide Waltz.  She chose Black velvet with silver trim for her dress.  Again her dances were well executed and she was placed 7th overall. <br> ');

document.write('Our Senior skater was Richard who has trained hard for many months for this event.  His compulsories - Westminster Waltz and Quickstep, were of high standard with good edges and coverage of the floor.  These gave him a placing of 8th.  His freedance was fast and well skated and he chose to perform this in black with yellow trim and gold stones outlining the applique.  His top mark for this from the panel of judges was 7.9, but a low mark from Ron Gibbs didn\'t help and Richard\'s final placing was 9th. <br> ');

document.write('In all it was a pleasant weekend - meeting up with skating friends from around the country makes this one of the more special competitions of the year. Next on Kent\'s event list is our own gala at the end of July when we welcome clubs from around the country.<br> ');

document.write('<span class="coachnotes"><p class="style3">Soham Open Competition - Soham - June 2009</span></p> ');

document.write('<span class="bodytext"><p>Last weekend we took a small team of skaters to Soham for their annual 2 day event.  Just 3 of Kent\'s skaters entered events on the Saturday.  Richard and Emma did figures purely for the enjoyment of doing something different.  With only about 30 minutes of practice in the weeks leading up to the comp. it was no surprise that both of them were placed towards the last third of the competitors - Richard surprised us all by starting on the small circles and finishing on the big ones.  He says he invented this figure himself!!!<br>');
			   
document.write('Samantha did extremely well with her freeskating programme which was \'clean\' and very well executed and put her in Gold medal position.  Richard also skated a free programme but because the floor is small he ended up not controlling his parallel and his skate caught the wall..this resulted in him finding it difficult to place the rest of his programme and he didn\'t get the result he hoped for.<br> ');
			   
document.write('Sunday  started with us leaving for the rink at 7 p.m. with no breakfast.  The only consolation was that the weather was beautiful. With more skaters from Kent on the second day, our Senior teams  were first to compete - Tracey, Samantha and Alice (Crowns), were placed 7th, and the Royals - consisting of Richard, Atlanta and Emma -  took Gold amongst some strong performances from other teams in that event.<br> ');

document.write('All but a few competitions attracted large entries and this resulted in the usual disarray of results, which is always disappointing. However, Samantha was placed a worthy 2nd after displaying her skills in the OSP Bronze standard comp.  Richard was placed 2nd in the Senior solo dance, with Emma 6th, and Tracey  7th.  This was Katies\' first competition since returning to skating as a Senior - her performance was confident and strong, as was her duo event with Tracey, which got them a 7th place.  Tracey performed her first OSP for many years and made a really good job of it, receiving another 7th place.  Despite a small mistake in the Senior duos Emma and Richard were rewarded with another silver place, and Karen was also placed 2nd in the Adult event.<br> ');
			   
document.write('Good performances were also given by Atlanta and Samantha in Bronze Solo Dance when they both danced the Federation Foxtrot and Association Waltz.  In this event Atlanta placed 4th.  September also skated very well and was placed mid-way in the Preliminary competition.  All events were mixed ages.<br> ');

document.write('Next in our schedule is Senior Championships at the beginning of July at Haywards Heath, when Richard will be competing, as well as Katie and Karen, and September will be at the assessments for Cup of Europe. Emma already has a place for freeskating but will be assessed for dance. Good luck to our skaters.<br>');

document.write('Pauls insert. After an excellent restaurant meal on the Saturday night by the river setting in Ely, as kindly arranged by Karen, Sunday proved to be a non-food expectant day. Firstly, breakfast was a quick walk into Soham where a Portuguese cafe provided the sausage sandwiches, that on opening were still raw in the centre, this followed after the competition by the drive to Cambridge to a Pizza Express, that had disappeared, a trip to a Hunger Horse, with a closed kitchen, another attempt on the M11 services for a KFC, that had no chicken, finally settling for a Burger King before heading home. No wonder we are in a recession.<br> ');

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