With a commanding lead, after producing a personal best with her short program, Justine Thornton still remained first in the Intermediate Division after placing second with her freeskate program. She collected a gold medal for her fine performance while representing the ACT at the 2011 Australian National Figure Skating Championships.

A very excited Justine told her coach; “Oh I just can’t believe it … I’m so happy … all my hard work has finally come together!”

It was an especially poignant moment for Justine’s coach, six times Australian Ladies Figure Skating Champion, Miriam Manzano; “I’m really proud of Justine, she has worked incredibly hard all year. Justine won the short program with a personal best performance and was several points ahead of her competition; it was great to see her self-belief and hard work rewarded with a National title win.”

“It’s personally ironic as this was Justine’s first national title win and mine too as a coach. My first national [figure skating] title win was also in the Intermediate Division and Justine was wearing that same dress which I won in.”

Another fine performance came from Karuna Henderson competing in the Senior Division. Karuna placed third after the short program with a personal best score and just missed out on a bronze medal after competing in the freeskate, placing fourth overall.

The Kenyon sisters, Eiland and Dilli both had top placings in each of their Divisions of Junior and Novice, with Eiland finishing sixth place overall and Dilli placing fifth overall. Dilli also received a special acknowledgment from the Morgan Innes Foundation for her achievements in 2011.

An additional bonus prior to the Championships for Karuna, Eiland and Dilli was been offered international competition nominations by Ice Skating Australia to represent Australia in 2012.

For first time skaters to the Nationals, Intermediate skater Brianna Steggall and Primary skater Mia Connell-Whitty, placing 12th in each of their Divisions, stated they where both very happy with their overall placing and looking forward to the challenges ahead in 2012. Charlotte (Charli) Kesteven did not make the cut to the freeskating after completing her short program.

Overall placings for ACT figure skating team:
Senior Division Karuna Henderson 4th
Junior Division Eiland Kenyon 6th
Novice Division Endillion (Dilli) Kenyon 5th
Intermediate Division Justine Thornton 1st
Brianna Steggall 12th
Charlotte (Charli) Kesteven 22nd
Primary Division Mia Connell-Whitty 12th

ACTISA President, Angelique Clyde-Smith while acknowledging the ACT team said; “This is a great result for our small team of skaters. We are very proud of all their achievements at the National Championships and throughout 2011. We hope they keep improving with their PBs [personal bests] in 2012”

Officials representing the ACT at the Nationals were International judge Angelique Clyde-Smith, Senior National judge Meg Monteleone and Novice National judges Rebecca Wells and Samantha Quimby.

The Australian National Figure Skating Championships was held over eight days, from 3-10 December 2011, at the Iceworld Boondall rink in Brisbane, with skaters from across Australia competing in Singles, Pair, Dance, Synchronized and Adult Divisions.

____________________________________________________________________
Angelique Clyde-Smith – ACTISA President
Julie Stalker – ACTISA Media Liaison 0408 959 376 m

Date and time of updated release: 10:45pm Monday, 12 December 2011
Date and time of original release: 7am Mon, 12 December 2011

Media Release - Word (.doc) Version

For further information: www.actisa.asn.au
www.isa.org.au
Morgan Innes Foundation - www.morganinnes.com/ www.isa.org.au/scholarships.htm

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