Sectionals Recap (Part 1)
I am back from Adult Sectionals, and I had a blast! I had been feeling confident going into the weekend and had great practices and clean program run-throughs. However, once I stepped on the ice, those feelings went away. My legs got shaky, and I couldn’t execute what is normally easy for me. I’m not sure if it was the pressure of the weekend or wanting to just perform really well.
First up was my pairs event. My partner and I had a good practice, despite having a wild and crazy practice ice that felt like The Hunger Games. We had pairs teams and solo ice dancers on the ice at the same time, so it made for an extremely dangerous practice. We got through it, but not without almost barreling into some ice dancers multiple times.
My partner and I were the only team in the event, so our goal was not to lose to the rule book (which has happened to others before). Much to our surprise and delight, our unison was spot on during this performance, and we both remembered the program in its entirety! Thankfully, we earned the gold medal and all was well.
After the pairs event ended, I had to change into my freestyle dress and get ready for my age group event. I won this event last year at Sectionals and felt good. However, I could not spin that day! I had a “competition camel” and flubbed that spin. It’s my strongest element and usually earns me the most points. After that fiasco, I went into my 3-jump combination and fell on the landing. I have never fallen on a jump in competition, so this was a fluke.
I remember seeing a patch of bumpy ice near the area where I fell, and apparently one of the women in the event before me fell in the same spot. I reported it to the chief referee of the competition, and he went to inspect the ice. While he didn’t see anything, he asked a skater to go to the spot to validate if there were bumps. She went over there, and she confirmed that the area had little pimple-like bumps on the surface. When I watched my video, I saw that my toe pick caught something on the landing, so I must have landed on the uneven ice.
What I learned is that the fall cost me the title. I lost 0.50 of a point for the fall, negative grades of execution on the 3-jump combination (on all 3 jumps!), and lower PCS scores. Had I stayed upright, I could have won the title for my age group event. I ended up in 3rd place and lost to 2nd place by 0.04. Oh well.
Again, I had a great time seeing friends from across the country and meeting new ones, so that made my heart full.
I’ll recap the Championship Gold Women event next week.