Skaters strike gold to reach British Championships in December

dailyrecord.co.uk:

East Kilbride Ice Figure Skating Club duo Christie Shannon and Marnie McColl took gold on their way to qualifying for the British Championships in December.The pair joined four club mates in Sheffield for the qualifiers last month and will now return for the main event on December 1-4 to compete against the best skaters in the country.Nineteen-year-old Christie, who is competing in her first season as a senior skater, performed over two days, completing a short programme on day one.On day two she competed in the Free programme where she earned a combined score of 104.69.Christie fought off some tough competition from across Britain to earn another top spot at Sheffield, where she performed a series of double and triple jumps and spins.Christie also achieved first place at the previous qualifier which was held in August this year, qualifying for this years British championships.Christie is part of the British Development Squad and has been invited to represent Great Britain internationally this year at the Tayside Trophy ISU International, being held in Dundee, where she will compete against skaters from Poland, Austria, Lithuania, Mexico and Hong Kong as well as the Latvia Trophy being held in Riga in December this year.Marnie McColl, who is 13 years old, competed in the Intermediate Novice section, where she had a fantastic skate to bring back another gold medal for East Kilbride Ice Figure Skating Club.This was Marnie’s first competition at this level and scored 34.92, which was also a new personal best score for her.She also performed a series of double jumps and spins to bring back first place.