By Laura Reid

Flashes of brilliant potential and emerging greatness.

That's what people saw at the Singapore National Figure Skating Championships over the weekend of March 8-9, 2009 at Kallang Ice World. The best of the skating seen at Nationals this year was the best that has ever been seen in Singapore.

But the Nationals began with no fanfare this year and ended on the same note. No awards podium on the ice. No media, no school principals, no Guest of Honour, no Singapore Sports Council, and no Singapore National Olympic Council. It was the first Nationals held since the Singapore Ice Skating Association got its provisional membership in the International Federation. How ironic that no one came—surely they were invited?

Beyond the skaters' avid friends and family who packed the rink, no one was at Nationals to witness their achievement in sport.

And, it was the sport – the sheer greatness of the physical achievement – that ultimately decided the winners. Brittany Lau in Junior, Ng Yi Ching in Novice, Michelle Lee in Intermediate and Chantelle Ing in Primary. Yes, these graceful young ladies had beautiful expression in their programmes, but they also showed how tough and accomplished they were as athletes.

They faced some hard competition from other skaters who also had some wondrous programmes – Sarah Paw, Sarah Rodgers, Dion Tan, Phoebe Wang, Jasmine Mehaffey and Bramina Braet. Not one of these skaters let go of their chance for first place without a fight.

(NB: Sarah Rodgers in Junior and Phoebe Wang in Novice withdrew after the short programmes due to injury and illness, respectively. Not all events had more than one competitor, and for this story we are only looking at free programme events with multiple competitors.)

Nationals is always the pinnacle event for skaters, and it's always very difficult for everyone. The ´home' skaters train in crowded public sessions and can't get enough lessons—and it often showed in their programmes. Some skaters were without coaches—always a stressful situation at competition. Skaters, who came back for Nationals, had to make a quick adjustment to jet lag and the small ice surface.

Skating is called an aesthetic sport because it demands great physical achievement and the expression of great art at the same time. But at the end of the day, figure skating is a sport—a ligament-straining, knee-twisting, bone-breaking sport.

On the first day of the competition, virtually everyone suffered from nerves and too much excitement. The lower levels—Pre-Primary and below—did their free programmes and the higher levels skated their short programmes, which contain the must-do elements for skaters.

It's not easy for people who don't skate to recognise the technical side of the sport. People are often impressed by a wink or a flashy smile instead of by how the skater controls the edges of the blade or how solid the landing of a jump is or how complicated yet controlled a spin is.

But Singapore's ice skaters have come a long way since 2002 when the first Nationals were held. Less than a handful of skaters could do a good double rotation jump in those days, double-double combos were rare, and the highest level didn't go past Novice.

This year, local fans of figure skating saw skaters bring more quality and daring to the ice than ever before. Overseas Singaporeans came home to compete, presenting a serious challenge to their local ´cousins'. The overseas skaters had speed, power and, in some instances, superior programmes.

The local skaters had a home court advantage in that they better understood the tricky dynamics of the smaller ice surface and they had some beautiful programmes of their own, too. By free programme event and alphabetical order, here are some of the skaters who shone during Nationals.

Primary
This event has both a short and free programme and, thus, is a much more demanding space to be. It means working with two pieces of music and two sets of choreography. The two-part events are technically more demanding than the lower levels, and they require far greater commitments of time and engagement from the skater.

Bramina Braet
Faced with some of the toughest competition she has ever had at Nationals, 12-year-old Bramina Braet simply dug deeper and delivered two of her best-ever programmes. Skating in Primary, she is a strong competitor who skates with elegance beyond her years. The long-time permanent resident of Singapore is a gifted dancer off the ice, and it always shows in the way she handles herself on the ice. Small and extremely flexible, she has the best Ina Bauer in Singapore.

For the short programme, Bramina used the Leo Delibes ballet Sylvia, delivering a programme filled with light-hearted charm and detailing. For the free, Bramina skated a dramatically different programme, bringing the tragedy of Tosca to the ice.

Many skaters can duplicate the moves they are shown by their coach or choreographer. Very few can bring originality or even a fresh perspective to a programme they have done many times. Bramina tells the story behind her music every time she competes. Her goal for this year is to raise the technical difficulty of her programmes.

Chantelle & Chloe Ing
The Singaporean twins from Canada, 10-year-old Chantelle and Chloe Ing, simply dazzled people. They had irrepressible joie de vie, breathtaking speed and flow, fantastic flying spins and sky-high spiral sequences that swept across the ice and seemed destined to poke a hole in the ozone layer along the way. Chloe placed first in the Ladies PrePrimary event while Chantelle took the gold medal in the Primary event.

The family had been living in Hong Kong when the girls first started skating, and a Russian coach tapped the girls as having elite potential. After serious debate, the family chose to move to Canada so the girls would have better training opportunities. "It has been a tremendous sacrifice for our family," said mom Jocelyn Ing, "but we wanted the girls to have a chance."

They're young; their skating is still raw but Singapore, you need to remember their names. They can spin, they can jump, they have great flexibility and they clearly love every moment they spend on the ice.

Intermediate
The intermediate category this year had only two competitors: Michelle Lee and Jasmine Mehaffey. Both skaters have been among our favourites for many years.

Michelle Lee
After a disappointing skate in 2008, 13 year-old Michelle Lee made a great comeback at Nationals 2009. Not only did she win the gold medal in her event, she also was awarded a trophy for overall best artistry at Nationals this year. She also received an excellence award from her club for placing 4th of 14 skaters at the Asian Figure Skating Challenge in Bangkok last October.

Michelle skates with total commitment and sincerity to her programmes. However Michelle's greatest gift is still the incredible latent power she has and she has barely tapped its potential. We aren't experts in biomechanics; but having seen Michelle in action, we're very sure that, kilo for kilo, she has above-average strength and power stored in her muscles. Her body responds incredibly fast to training, helped along by her no-nonsense approach to working on her elements. We believe that she can do anything she sets her mind to do.

Jasmine Mehaffey
Nationals 2009 may be the competition that helped Jasmine Mehaffey find her game, again. She is a former gold medallist at Nationals but in recent years she has lost momentum through the revolving door of coaches in Singapore and the inherent difficulty in arranging lessons as well as the pressures of secondary school.

For the first time in many years, Jasmine is no longer a member of the National Youth Development squad, due to changes in rules regarding residency status. Ideally, this will give her the time to regroup and focus on improving her technical scores.

When she's at her best, the 13 year-old delivers the beauty of the figure skating with unsurpassed natural grace. Her musical timing is about as close to perfect as you will find in someone as young as she is. She has been one of the best home-grown spinners in Singapore, and she has much to give to the sport, with the right commitment and coach. It is our hope that we will get to see a revitalised Jasmine at Nationals 2010.

Novice

In the Novice ladies free programme, two skaters stood out: 12 year-old Ng Yi Ching who put down a phenomenal free programme to win the gold; and Dion Tan, a 11-year old whose reach exceeded her grasp and finished in third place.

Ng Yi Ching
With a delicate appearance, Yi Ching appears to personify softness in a sport that is about power and control. But, appearances can be deceiving; the delicate flower put down two physically demanding double-double jump combinations and a beautiful, effortless-looking axel (with her hand in the air above her head) out of a spiral sequence.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2inN3sSwMws

Yi Ching's double flip-double toe-single loop combination in the first half of the programme earned 3.83 points. However she landed the harder double lutz-double loop + combo, landed towards the end of her programme—generating bonus points and earning a total of 4.07 points.

Both combinations were graded above average, an indication of her consistency throughout the programme. Many skaters are exhausted towards the end of the programmes, but Yi Ching was still landing well-rated jumps. She followed up the double lutz-double loop + combo with a solo double toe loop, again triggering bonus points.

Ng Yi Ching is another name for Singapore to remember. She still is a tiny slip of a girl, who more or less grew up wearing skates. She has come so far as an athlete and an artist, and we can look forward to even more from her as a world competitor in the future. If you're looking for emerging greatness, you need to look at Yi Ching.

Dion Tan
For Dion Tan, another undeniably talented Singaporean, the Novice free programme turned into a meltdown. The weaknesses we saw in the 11 year-old's short programme proved costly in the free. From second place in the short programme, she finished third overall.

We still have great confidence in Dion's potential. Like all athletes, skaters peak at different times, and Dion is still very young. Let's not make the mistake of underestimating where this skater can go. She is willing to try the impossible, a risk that many skaters simply won't take for fear of downgrading their marks. Why take the risk?

But little Dion must have been out there on the ice thinking: ´Well, why not?'

She pushed herself past her limits both times we saw her skate. It's not good skating strategy, but we had to admire the kid's feistiness. The advice of a good technical coach will make a world of difference to her.

Dion needs a coach who can work with her to improve her pacing and prevent her from using up all her stamina in the first third of her programme. She needs a coach who can work on her entry technique for her jumps because right now she is relying heavily on the pure (and considerable) power of her muscles to get through the jumps.

However this is already costing her in her attempts with the double axel. It also comes into play with other jumps when she gets too nervous. She needs a coach who can work with her on her ´head game' her mental control over her programme.

The kid is a fiery little dynamo, not unlike a certain sparkplug of a swimmer in Singapore. She needs a coach who can control and direct that explosive energy.

Winning the free programme always depends on three key factors: whether skaters have the technical difficulty in their programmes to produce the technical scores; whether they have the creative ability to tell a story with their skating; and whether they have the ´head game' to control their nerves enough to actually deliver everything they have been practising for months.

In Junior, the free programme came down to two skaters: Brittany Lau and Sarah Paw. Sarah Rodgers withdrew after the short programme with an ankle injury. Anja Chong, 15 years old and Singapore's representative at the ISU Junior Worlds in late February, was a distant fourth in the short programme, and the gap widened in the long programme.

Junior

Brittany Lau
A lean, willowy 14 year-old, Brittany has been skating for more than half her life. Six months ago she moved from Singapore to the US so she could train at a sports boarding school. Leaving family and friends wasn't easy, but the girl has a dream. More importantly, she has developed an attitude to do what has to be done to skate well.

Coming home to compete at Nationals, she felt more pressure than usual to do well. No one said it aloud, but everyone wanted to see if the training had produced the changes Brittany wanted.

It's safe to say that her time at the Shattuck-St.Mary's school in Minnesota is paying off. Her jump technique has improved and so have her other elements. A far more polished and serious skater took the ice at Nationals this year, and she received a thunderous ´welcome home' from the crowd.

A gifted spinner from her early days in skating, Brittany scored a Level 3 on her change foot-combination spin and a Level 2 on her flying camel spin. She crossed the ice with the flow and ease of a younger Yu-Na Kim from Korea, one of the most ´organic' skaters that we have seen in a long time.

Brittany also had nice height, clean rotations and solid control on her double-double combination jumps. There was no deterioration in quality in the second jumps. Of course, she still had to watch her speed to avoid the boards.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pI74IrIailA

Now back at St.Mary's, Brittany is continuing to work on her double axel and triple jumps as well as her overall confidence. The quiet teenager is another skater who has moved steadily through the ranks, delivering programmes of increasing substance and quality. She's another one to watch, because she's going to keep getting better. It's unfortunate that Brittany is not eligible for this year's National team due to new rules regarding permanent residency, because she would be a great complement to the National team.

Sarah Paw
Junior Ladies Sarah Paw delivered a sassy skate to West Side Story in her short programme and then followed it up on Day Two with a passionate skate to the soundtrack from a Japanese film. She is a skater who has never failed to excite the audience, and this year was no different.

Sarah set a new standard in her skating at Nationals this year. She continues to defy the laws of gravity, and maybe even physics, with her trademark layback spin. She simply stretches backwards until she is bent almost completely over at the waist—and then spins. Sarah's double flip-double-loop double-toe + combo also was a magnificent start to her free programme, scoring 4.20 points. It was the most technically challenging free programme she has ever done, suggesting that given the right challenge, Sarah will deliver even more.

At 17, she is already a talented interpreter of music on the ice. Like a great method actor, she is never caught ´thinking' about her programme. She is simply one with her music, even as she delivers physically challenging and technically difficult elements. She can skate with wild abandon or delicate softness, but always as dictated by her music. There is never a false note in anything she performs.

If you missed these brilliant ladies on the ice this year, be sure to be ringside next year. Singapore's competitive figure skaters keep getting better and better.

Rankings
Skater Name/Event/Ranking by Total Score(SP+FP)/Short Programme Results/Free Programme Results

1 Brittany Lau (PR) Junior 87 32.3 54.7
2 Ng Yi Ching (S) Novice 86.86 27.8 59.06
3 Sarah Paw (S) Junior 85.07 32.64 52.43
4 Leong Kai Jing (PR) Senior 83.64 26.86 56.78
5 Michelle Lee Yin (S) Intermediate 82.29 32.23 50.06
6 Chantelle Ing (S/Cdn) Primary 76.92 30.39 46.53
7 Bramina Braet (PR) Primary 73.09 28.05 45.04
8 Celine Bavaud Novice 70.39 24.41 45.98
9 Max Ko (S) Intermediate 69.85 31.82 38.03
10 Anja Chong (PR) Junior 68.88 27.3 41.58
11 Jasmine Mehaffey (PR) Intermediate 68.03 28 40.03
12 Maxel Lee (PR) Novice 67.87 31.86 36.01
13 Dion Tan (S) Novice 67.81 26.77 41.04
14 Gazel Lee (PR) Primary 64.8 24.11 40.69
15 Pang Xin Xiang (S) Primary 45.92 17.8 28.92
16 Pang Xi Xiang (S) Primary 44.25 17 26.45

Withdrew after SP*
Sarah Rodgers (S) Junior SP Only 31.53
Phoebe Wang (PR) Novice SP Only 23.91

Skater Name/Free Programme Events Only/Ranking by Total Score for Events with Free Programme/Free Programme Results/

1 Chloe Ing PrePrimary 48.14 48.14
2 Sarah Wong PrePrimary 40.23 40.23
3 Chloe Koh Elementary 39.14 39.14
4 Audrey Tan PrePrimary 35.62 35.62
5 Linda von Atzigen Elementary 34.82 34.82
6 Julia von Atzigen PrePrimary 34.49 34.49
7 Claudia Philipp Preliminary 31.8 31.8
8 Joelle Bavaud Preliminary 31.48 31.48
9 Vanesaa Leung Elementary 30.7 30.7
10 Charissa Goh PrePrimary 30.42 30.42
12 Charmaine Lim Preliminary 27.1 27.1
13 Chadwick Wang Preliminary 26.27 26.27
14 Natalie Goh Preliminary 26.26 26.26