Local figure skaters battle it out at Gauteng North Championships
Pretoria's best figure skaters were recently in action at the Provincial Figure Skating Championships presented by the Gauteng North Figure Skating Association.
The 2018 Provincial Figure Skating Championships was presented at The Ice Ring in The Grove Mall in Pretoria last week.
This was a joint event between the Gauteng North and Central Gauteng Figure Skating Associations.
A total of 28 skaters entered the event that was held over two days. Participants’ ages ranged from three to 20 years.
They competed in two different categories – the national section and the non-national section.
In the national one, where the more advanced skaters were competing, participants were divided into divisions for junior ladies, novice girls and pre-novice girls.
The junior ladies division was won by Jaydean Brits, with Cristel Viljoen in the second place and Megan Timmerman third.
Donatella Glatter won the division for novice girls, followed by Melissa Venter in second place.
In the pre-novice girls division Zandri Timmerman walked away with the laurels while Amelie Thill followed in second place.
Elmarie Viljoen, marketing official of the Gauteng North Figure Skating Association (GNFSA), said the skaters had to make many sacrifices to participate in this sport.
Because Pretoria had only two ice skating rinks – both part of commercial operations at shopping centres – the figure skaters could only practice early in the morning before business hours.
Some of the more serious skaters work on participating internationally, dreaming of a chance to skate at the next Winter Olympics.
The top skaters will now start preparing seriously for the national championship, which will also take place at The Ice Rink in The Grove Mall on 7 and 8 May this year.
For more information about the GNFSA, visit their website at https://gnfigureskating.co.za or phone Elmarie Viljoen at 082-921-3121.
For free breaking and community news, visit Rekord’s websites:
For more news and interesting articles, like Rekord on Facebook, follow us on Twitter or Instagram.
