North American Challenge Skate

Lake Placid, NY USA

July 14-15, 2000

I arrived just as the ladies were finishing practice so I saw the novice and junior pairs and men practice. I didn't take any notes but I was particularly impressed with Avard/Choquet in Novice pairs. They were working on a throw triple sal that had nice height and distance and was barely two footed on the best attempts. Her air position in the lifts was particularly good and overall I though they had alot more polish than the other teams. I thought I also saw Blakinger/Ladwig doing a throw double lutz. A few of the novice men were working on triple lutzes, which I did not expect to see. The junior pairs was the usual mixture of senior tricks with junior ability. Some of the lifts were pretty darn scary going up and only just managing to stay up.

Note: I'm adding final placing, short(compulsory) and long (free) after each description. Check the USFSA NACS Results page for the full results.

Novice Free Dance

The compulsory dances must have been interesting. Three teams were tied for third place and no one in the clear lead.

Novice Ladies Long

Novice Pairs Long

Two teams came out for the first warmup group but something must have happened because Blakinger/Ladwig withdrew after the warmup. I did see her fussing with her skate but nothing else that was obvious. Please note that I don't know all the lift names very well so they could be horrible wrong. I'm trying but a Prelim pairs level doen't give me much overhead lift experience.

Novice Mens Long

Junior Pairs Long

I did see the pairs debut (I assume) of Mark Batka. He and his partner looked very tenative together but seemed to be having fun. They were coached by Luc Bradet.

We didn't stick around for medals since it was late and pouring out already. Overall, I though the quality of the skating was quite good and I esp. found the singles skating much improved. The novice men were a very pleasant suprise, it is nice to see so many promising kids. Maybe only a few will ever make it but it's great to see such attention to details of presentation and technique at novice.

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Created 17 July 2000 by Amy Mossman
Last Update 26 July 2000