ICE SKATING: Olympics bound Jenna in seventh heaven
THERE was a double celebration for Jenna McCorkell at the weekend. The Coleraine skater kicked things off by winning the British title for an unprecendented seventh time.
Then on Monday afternoon it was officially confirmed that Jenna had secured her place at next year's Winter Olympics in Vancouver, becoming the first ever Northern Irish skater to take part in the event.
It's richly deserved for Jenna, who has been national champion for the last six years and was head and shoulders above the competition at the the British Championships at Ice Sheffield.
The top 10 European and world competitor was literally in a class of her own and has been making big improvements all season on the international stage.
The 22-year-old Coleraine skater however suffered a shoulder injury in the morning and was skating under par but she already has her sights set on another international event in Germany at the NRW Trophy, and whilst Jenna is clocking up the miles in different time zones it doesn't seem to be affecting her skating.
Jenna's coach, Yuri Bureiko, was delighted with her performance. "Jenna has been improving each time she is going out there to perform, in fact the performance value of her programmes has improved out of all recognition and her confidence is really really good," he said.
"I feel she is very relaxed also with her skating. Her experience is showing, and feedback from the judges this season has been tremendous.
"Jenna's choreographer is Shanetta Folle who is world renowned and very much in demand, we were so fortunate to get her to work with Jenna this season and this is now being reflected in her performances.
"Jenna receives lottery funding from Sport NI and whilst this is very welcomed there have been some raised eyebrows as to where some of the funding has been going this year.
"For an athlete to compete at the Winter Games alone demands a huge amount of funding and it would be unfortunate if financial stress was to impinge on her performances.
"An athlete of Jenna's stature should not have to worry about such things, we would hope that Sport NI will step up to the mark and help Jenna with some additional funding in her most important year."
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Weather for Coleraine
Thursday 24 May 2012
Today
Sunny
Temperature: 11 C to 22 C
Wind Speed: 8 mph
Wind direction: East
Tomorrow
Sunny
Temperature: 14 C to 22 C
Wind Speed: 15 mph
Wind direction: East
