Jayson Sutcliffe, Tracey King, Purdy Rawlingson and David Robertson in Shanghai

The first World Artistic Roller Skating Grand Prix was held in Shanghai, China, from August 19-23 at the  Luwan Stadium and Victoria skaters Tracey King and Purdy Rawlingson represented Australia in the Junior and Senior ladies events. Tracey, coached by Sutcliffe, at her first international competition placed 3rd in the Junior Ladies event amongst a strong field and was extremely excited about her placing, “It was such a great experience, just to be out there competing against such strong competitors and to see some of the best skaters in the world from Italy was amazing”. Purdy, coached by Robertston, competing in the Senior ladies category placed 6th in the 11 strong field won by the former world champion Deborah Sbei of Italy. Cash prizes of up to $5,000USD were up for grabs but the girls say ‘the money wasn’t the incentive’ behind their motivation to compete ‘but it is a nice bonus’. The opening ceremony of the event had more than 1,500 spectators and proved to be a hit with the locals. The Grand Prix will be staged again in 2012.

This entry was posted on 26/08/2011 at 1:53 am. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.

Posted in A General News Artistic News by gloriah No Comments Yet