Michael has them in a spin
A Billingham teenager definitely enjoyed being sent to Coventry as he returned with the level 7 Mens Ice Figure Skating Title.
Michael Duffield a 13-year-old member of Tees Active Sports Academy competed at the Coventry Opens Figure Skating Champion held in the Coventry Skydome Arena.
The Northfield School pupil adds the Coventry title to the Bradford Hull and Sheffield titles he has won over the past year.
The Coventry competition was Michaels first Level 7 competition and one of Michaels coaches, Alison Laws a resident ice skating professional at Billingham Forum said, “Michael handled the pressure exceptionally well, skating a clean error free program confidently with good quality elements. His performance was stylish and flowed well; he had more difficult technical elements in his program as we felt this was in keeping with him moving up to level 7”
Michael who trains up to 20 hours per week divides his punishing training schedule between training with Alison at Billingham Forum and at the Coventry International Skating Academy under the watchful eye of head coach Yuri Bureiko.
All his hard work obviously paid off as Michael won the competition by a large margin with marks ranged from 3.2 to 3.5 whilst the second placed skater marks ranged from 2.3 to 2.7.
Alison added “Michaels skating is improving all the time and he is developing better speed across the ice and more elevation in his jumps”
There is no rest for this talented youngster as he is now working towards his level 7 Free Program Test and Level 8 Elements test on 27th November.
For more information on Ice Skating contact Billingham Forum on (01642) 551381.