Australia’s Artistic Skaters have dominated the medal tally at the World Skate Oceania Championships and Pacific Cup in New Plymouth, NZ, over the weekend.
Teams came from across the Oceania region including Australia, New Zealand, Japan and Chinese Taipei as well as representatives from Brazil and Ireland in the competition.
Senior Men’s athlete Andrew Beattie (WA) brought home the gold in the Solo Dance with a total score of 100.95.
It was an Australian affair on the podium with Queensland’s Rory Armfield and Oscar White, achieving second and third place respectively.
In the Ladies event, Kara O’Gorman split the top Kiwis for a silver medal in her first year at the senior level in a field of 20 athletes.
South Australians Shakira McCoy-Travers and Mitchell Deakin were both awarded as Senior Oceania Champions in the Women’s and Men’s Free Skating.
Australia’s Solo Dance success continued through the age categories. Sophia Garufo (QLD) joined the 100 club with a score of 100.94 to be awarded Oceania Champion in Junior Ladies. Australian teammates Georgia Hammond and Harper Connors, placed second and third.
Kya Michal-Bax (QLD) was awarded Youth Solo Dance Champion while Matthew Williams (WA) and Kalani McKenzie (QLD) were Oceania Champions in Cadet Solo Dance and Kalani was also awarded the Jim Taylor Cup for her Free Dance.
Thomas Sparks (VIC) fought his way up the standings with a winning long program to take out the Oceania Championship in Junior Men Free Skating, whilst Vivienne Buckley, (VIC) took Silver in the Ladies. Emma Vonthethoff and Abby McDonald, (SA) moved up the age categories this year to take first and second place in Youth Free Skating.
South Australia took over the whole podium in Cadet Free Skating, with the Oceania Championship going to Antonia Aristidis, Charli Walsh in second and Alexia Aristidis bringing home the bronze medal.
Australia’s success extended to the younger Pacific Cup Grades, bringing home four gold and silver medals from Free Skating and another 4 medals from Solo Dance.
The Masters and Advanced Masters in The Australian team collected another 9 medals during the competition.
Monique Lawrence from ACT brought home the gold in Senior Inline Free Skating and Pra Angeli, a team of four from QLD are the Oceania Champions in Quartet.
Anita Hunt, Clive Harris, Rachel Tonkin, John Hawkins, Tammy Bryant and Jodie Garufo formed the management team, on top of their regular coaching duties, working with many other personal coaches and of course supported by parents and families at the event.
Athletes will now prepare for the Australian National Championships in Sydney, with the opening session to take place at 5:30pm on Sunday 7 July at the Whitlam Leisure Centre, 90a Memorial Ave, Liverpool.
