By Laura Reid

On the closing day of the 8th National Figure Skating Championships on March 8th, 2009, 14-year-old Brittany Lau won the free programme and landed in 1st place overall for the Junior Ladies event.

After the short programme on Saturday, Brittany had been sitting in second place, just a fraction behind 17-year-old Sarah Paw. However Brittany's strong technical performance in the free programme gave her an edge and the gold medal.

The final scores for the Junior Ladies events were: Brittany Lau, with a total mark of 87; Sarah Paw, 85.07 points; and 15 year-old Anja Chong with 68.8 points. Sarah Rodgers, 13, withdrew after the short programme with an injured ankle.

Some skating events have an obvious winner within their ranks, but not in the Junior Ladies free programme this time. Brittany and Sarah were evenly matched, equally talented competitors. Both skated with focus and commitment, and both were wonderful to watch, demonstrating why we love this sport as much as we do.

For the free programme, the final spread between the two girls was less than three points. Brittany scored 54.70 for the free programme while Sarah earned 52.43. But that margin was enough for Brittany to erase Sarah's lead from the short programme and move into first place.