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Well what a nationals.
Danielle and I arrived home the Saturday morning that the event started our soon to be Senior Mens Champion just happened to be on our connecting flight from LA, only Robert could manage something like that so the 3 of us sat together to start off what was going to be a pretty good week.

We felt like we had 3 really strong skates the best we ever have at a national championships before, stumbles you say clearly you dont know great chori when you see it. It was great to have a good sized crowd in for the OD and FD cant blame people for not coming to the CD nothing too exciting there.

For us all feels on track in being ready to give it our best in Germany.

Thats enough about me.
One correction for you kim, Oli skated great in novice awesome little guy but just because he is small doesnt make him the youngest hes actually 14 and the same age as a couple of the boys and he skated extremely well. But i have to commend Harley Dahlstrom i think he was the youngest at 12yrs in this event correct me if someone else is younger and was the only skater to actually go for and land a triple in either program. Also a great thanks to him and his family for helping with designing our OD costume and showing us some dance moves. This is a kid on the move to watch and our first aboriginal skater to go international this week in NZ.

Also well done to Maho on winning Novice ladies.

Senior Men was the group to watch if you wanted close competition. With less then 10 points between 1st and 6th anyone counting chickens would have been in trouble. Well done to my close mate Robert on a crap short program and a well skated long program

Senior Ladies was always going to be one sided in the Australian ranks with Cheltz out skating all other girls in the event. But good to see Phoeb getting some form back hopefully a sign of things to come.

The top parts of Junior were really well skate for out up and coming skaters the top skaters in Ladies are really going to be the ones to watch and the same with Men but will be intresting to see which of these skaters in the lower parts rise or stay down. Senior nationals in the next few years is looking just as good with the numbers in junior.

I didnt seen primary or intermidiate but hopefully some young strong skaters down there.

Also top effort from SFSC on the main part of the nationals week, with not too much outside help the club did awesome in the running of the comp, didnt hear too many complaints from visitors or voulnteers who were always willing to help out. Thanks to the judges for freezing there arses off all week and the computer tech. (john lee, janet, don and james) and whoever else i forgot. I think Yen Nguyen and Lisa Masters win the gold for keeping people fed everytime i was upstairs warming up or watching they were slaving away.

Sad we have to wait 18 months to do it all again

I didn't get to see the Championships at all, so am completely in the dark about the standard of Australian skaters. Are we likely to see some of them at the Olympics in 2010? Are our best skaters international standard yet? I don't mean medals, but at least make finals and not be totally outclassed.

I do hope so, it could do so much for promoting the sport here, to have skaters not only compete, but actually do well in the results.

Australian skating is looking very healthy and there are definately prospects to have representatives in the Olympics.

The competition for qualification is the Nebelhorn Trophy which I think takes place in Obersdorf about the last week of September. Our skaters will vie for spots there.

During Nationals there were some TV crews there and some news reports on the TV. I spoke to a guy in Merimbula who when I mentioned that I was into skating (as opposed to Aussie Rules) he said he saw something which featured Cheltzie and asked who she was and how did she do.

Figure skating (along with the other ice sports) rarely gets major coverage except around the time of the Olympics, so most work between Olympics in promoting the sport needs to come from the clubs and grass roots volunteers. However it is a matter of capitilsing on those opportunities when they come and you will see an influx into the sports next year around the time of the Olympics.

But I think overall the state of figure skating is probably better than it has been for a long time. Hollins had a record number of entries this year, particularly in the Preliminary and Elementary levels. Which all bodes well for the future of the sport.

And I will be interested see how Victorian skating will develop with the Docklands rink coming on line in the next year. It will take a while but this should bring an influx into the sport who until now haven't been able to access a rink.

Yes, without cable tv, the only time I see figure skating is the Winter Olympics. Not even Worlds.

It would be so good for the sport's profile if some of our athletes did really well.

If the Olympic Qualification Competition airs any video clips of the Australian skaters, aussieSKATES will try to upload them to our youtube account.

I realise it's a bit late in coming but I have only found this site recently. I want to say thank you to everyone for their support/good wishes and positive attitudes towards Robert.
He won the championship in 3 year old boots and used an old costume in the long.
Just for the record up to now he has had no funding or sponsorship for overseas training.
Like other skaters it's all been up to us to give him the best we could.
I had to have a giggle when I read names like "Impoverished Parent" and another parent describes vegemite on toast for tea. I'm not alone any more! Other families suffer the same fate apparently. I'm sure it's the same in other sports, not just figure skating.
All the boys in senior skated well, it was most enjoyable to watch. Any one of the boys could have won the competition. They were all good. Congratulations to them all, the standard is high. It was a pleasure to be there. Carole

Nice to have you on the forum. I met you at Nationals - I was the one with Craig during the Men's practise.

Robert's performance at Nationals was great. He is such an entertaining skater. It was quite exciting to see someone come from behind to take the title.