Vancouver 2010 News thread

[Val]

Have you all registered at the Vancouver 2010 message board and left good luck messages for Sinead & John and all the other skaters?

http://vancouver2010.teamgb.com/MessageBoard/Register.aspx

[Val]

Eurosport TV coverage

http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/winter-olympics/figure-skating/


BBC figure skating

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport/winter_olympics/vancouver_2010/figure_skating

[Val]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/eleanoroldroyd/2010/02/torvill_and_dean_reminisce_abo.html

[Val]

http://sport.stv.tv/winter-olympics/156854-just-why-are-the-new-torvill-and-dean-so-unknown/

[Val]

http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/more-sport/2010/02/11/dancing-with-the-ice-stars-115875-22034271/

[Val]

Team GB Figure Skaters Achieve Personal Best

Team GB’s Olympic debutants David King and Stacey Kemp achieved a personal best score of 139.94 to finish 16th in the pairs figure skating competition.

The pair backed up Sunday’s season’s best performance in the short programme, performed to music from Linkin Park, with another slick performance in the free programme on Monday, scoring 91.66 from a routine which included various lifts, spins, throws and flips.

King was happy with their overall performance, “We were just trying to enjoy it here, every moment. It’s been a fantastic experience for us. We did a great Olympic programme. There’s a lot of pressure on you to perform here and we did great, we’re really happy.

“We’re feeling really pumped after this experience to get back and get working on the elements that we’re missing, the elements that we need to compete with the very best, so we want to take these next few years to polish these elements.”

The British pair received a rapturous response from the large crowd inside the Pacific Coliseum stadium, and Kemp clearly enjoyed the experience, “the atmosphere was amazing out there, it was a great crowd. I really enjoyed it. We scored a personal best at the Olympic Games so i’m really happy. We achieved everything we set out to achieve.”

Looking ahead to future King added, “We’re 16th at the Olympics; we’ve got to move on from here. There’s a lot of hard work to do, but we’re looking forward to doing it. Our plan is to go back to our training base in Poland and train hard for Sochi 2014.”

Asked what they would take away from the Games, King said “Just that I want to do it again! We’ve tried to be like massive sponges, soaking up everything and we’ve enjoyed every aspect from the Opening Ceremony to the Olympic Village. Being an Olympian is a great feeling and it gives us a lot of strength.”

King and Kemp are looking forward to continuing their Olympic experience off the ice, King said, “In the next few days we really want to support Team GB. We’ve felt part of a bigger team than just us for a change and it’s been fantastic. The support group here is amazing and the British Olympic Association has made us feel right at home from the word go. We’ve not come expecting to win and they’ve respected that it’s not just about gold medals, it’s about personal bests, and that’s what we’ve done.”

[Val]

Kerrs eighth after initial dance
Sinead Kerr and John Kerr made a decent start to their Olympic figure skating campaign with the British pair ranked eighth after the compulsory dance.

The brother and sister combination scored 37.02 after the first of three dances at the Pacific Coliseum.

The competition is headed by Russian pair Oksana Domnina and Maxim Shabalin who lead Canadian duo Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir by 1.02 points.

Brits Penny Coomes and Nicholas Buckland are well behind in 21st place.

American duo Meryl Davis and Charlie White are currently in the bronze medal position with the original dance on Sunday and the free dance on Monday still to come.

The 2006 Olympic silver medallists Tanith Belbin and Benjamin Agosto from the US are behind their compatriots in fourth place.

The Russian world champions grabbed the judges' attention with their deft footwork and precise holds to score 43.76.

With only 6.74 points separating the top eight couples in the three-part competition, the rankings could easily change under the accumulative-points scoring system following Sunday's original dance.

For the Kerrs it was a personal best performance and they were pleased with how the opening skate went.

"It was fine, it was fun. We skated pretty good and we were pretty happy with it," said John Kerr.

"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."

Sinead added: "I felt pretty relaxed actually. The crowd had a really warm energy and it felt 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."

Story from BBC SPORT:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/sport1/hi/olympic_games/vancouver_2010/figure_skating/8525743.stm

Published: 2010/02/20 04:48:32 GMT

© BBC MMX

[Val]

Kerrs' skating medal hopes fade
British figure skaters Sinead and John Kerr remain eighth but lost ground on the leaders after the original dance.

The brother and sister combination scored 56.76 points to leave them with 93.78 overall, 17.37 off the lead.

Canada's Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir scored 68.41 points to take the lead and hold an advantage of 2.6 ahead of Monday's final free dance (2320 GMT).

United States pair Meryl Davis and Charlie White are second with the Russia duo, who had led, in third.

Oksana Domnina and Maksim Shabalin held a 1.02 point lead going into Sunday's original dance at the Pacific Coliseum in Vancouver but a disappointing score of 62.84 saw them drop down to third.

GB's other pair Penny Coomes and Nicholas Buckland moved up two places to 19th position after an entertaining performance that was well received by the spectators inside the arena.

The Kerr duo, dressed in country-western attire and dancing to Johnny Cash's 'I've Been Everywhere', also proved popular with the spectators, if less so with the judges.

After staying in eighth spot, the Scottish siblings said they were satisfied with their performance.

"I enjoyed it and I think it was not too bad," said Sinead Kerr.

"It could have been better but we are pretty happy with the score and the performance. You don't have any control over the judges scores so you just have to do your best."

John Kerr added: "All you can do is go for personal best and hopefully we can score well and move up a couple of spots."

Describing their performance and the positive reaction of the crowd Buckland added: "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."

Story from BBC SPORT:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/sport1/hi/olympic_games/vancouver_2010/figure_skating/8527576.stm

Published: 2010/02/22 05:31:46 GMT

© BBC MMX

[Val]

8th for Sinead and John. two places above Turin http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/othersports/article-1253072/WINTER-OLYMPICS-2010-John-Sinead-Kerr-finish-eighth-Canada-ice-dance-gold.html

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