Hong Kong adventure for young skater
WARMER temperatures await Zara AnthonyWhigham, but ice remains firmly in the forecast.
The 16yearold leaves for Hong Kong and its near30 degree heat tomorrow, where she will compete in the New Zealand team at the Open Asian Figure Skating Trophy.
It will no doubt be a shock to the system, although Anthony-Whigham is no stranger to competing in new environments.
This will be her third international event, having also been to Poland and the Philippines with New Zealand teams.
Alongside that, she has competed in Australia several times.
Despite that, she was expecting a new experience and was excited about competing there.
‘‘I guess you could say that,’’ she said when asked if her previous experience would help.
‘‘But you don’t know what’s going to happen and what it’s going to be like and it’s a different climate and different people, so it will be different.’’
She will compete in the junior ladies section of the competition, which begins on Wednesday and runs until Saturday.
She will do a short programme, followed by a free programme, which is longer.
One of the bonuses of going overseas was that it exposed her to what other skaters were doing, which could give her inspiration for her own routines, she said.
‘‘It’s quite good because we get to see skaters at a higher level than in New Zealand, since we’re quite far away from the rest of the world.
‘‘It’s good to go to a competition where lots of different countries go, so we can see their skating styles. It’s good learning.’’
A year 12 pupil at St Hilda’s Collegiate, she has been skating since the age of 6 and is the only South Island skater in this year’s team.
Coached by the highly-accomplished Ricky Cockerill, AnthonyWhigham trains most mornings on the ice, as well as some afternoons and does office sessions as well.
Alongside that, she dances and has won national awards in modern, troupe and jazz, as well as winning four national aerobics titles.
She said dance and skating went together well, with elements of each helping the other.
A serious ankle injury last year had acted as a road block, however she has come back strongly.
It took two months to get back on the ice and then another period of time to develop confidence in it again.
However, she did not feel it had hampered her build up to this competition too much, aside from having missed training through that period.
She had a successful 2016 national championships and has already qualified for the 2017 championships.