By Izzy Clark<\/p>\n
It is a bright October morning in Allen, Texas, and an arena is packed to the brim. Hundreds of adoring fans wave banners emblazoned with hand-painted messages of support, eyes scanning frantically for a glimpse of a superstar. This isn\u2019t a concert, or a football match \u2013 it\u2019s the beginning of the international figure skating Grand Prix: Skate America.<\/span><\/p>\n Figure skating in the UK is an odd sport. For a country with over 50 ice rinks (22 in Scotland) and a history featuring some legendary names \u2013 John Curry, Robin Cousins, Torvill & Dean \u2013 Britain\u2019s current senior squad seems to be fighting to make a name for themselves. Whilst the Men\u2019s and Women\u2019s divisions have several up-and-coming Junior skaters, and both Junior and Senior Ice Dance are winning respectable medals, it\u2019s the Pairs event \u2013 consisting of side-by-side spins, jumps and throws \u2013 where Britain has the most to gain.<\/span><\/p>\n In 2022, 3-time British National Pairs champions Zoe Jones\/Christopher Boyadji were unexpectedly dethroned by an up-and-coming team coached in Dundee, Scotland \u2013 Anastasia Vaipan-Law (23) and Luke Digby (19), both former singles skaters in their first year of partnership. The duo would go on to gain valuable competitive experience at 2023 Skate America, when reigning World Champions Miura\/Kihara withdrew. Vaipan-Law and Digby took their place and took part in their first international Senior Grand Prix event, where they placed a respectable 7<\/span>th<\/span> among a dense field. Later placing 9<\/span>th<\/span> at Europeans and 20<\/span>th<\/span> at Worlds, Vaipan-Law and Digby made themselves ones to watch.<\/span><\/p>\n Fast forward a year to October 2024, and team Vaipan-Law\/Digby were back at Skate America, hoping to improve on their previous result. Coming off a successful second place at the Tayside Trophy in Dundee, they stand just a chance of making the final. With coaches Debi, Simon and Jason Briggs in the stands, they stepped onto the ice for the Short Program, aiming for new high scores. With a routine set to \u201cLighthouse\u201d by Patrick Watson, they placed a respectable sixth ahead of Americans McBeath\/Parkman and Finns V\u00e4\u00e4n\u00e4nen\/Clerici and went into the Long Program aiming for a new personal best score. And they\u2019d get it, with their program to \u201cArrival of the Birds\/Carry You\u201d finishing with an overall total of 180.13, sixth place in the Long Program and sixth overall, a new personal best for a Grand Prix event, and the highest placement for a British pairs team at a Grand Prix event since 2008.<\/span><\/p>\n Speaking to British Ice Skating after the competition, the team said they were: \u201ctruly satisfied and overjoyed that we were able to deliver two programmes to the very best of our ability\u201d, and that it was \u201ca moment [we\u2019re] sure we will never forget.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Heading into the NHK Trophy in early November and aiming for an even better score before Europeans next Spring, Vaipan-Law and Digby seem to be Britain\u2019s next big hope for Pairs skating. With each season that Vaipan-Law and Digby showcase their exciting progression through the ranks, they attract more fans from their home country to take up their sport. Hopefully, these new stars can help inspire future generations of young skaters to take up the sport and help resurrect Britain\u2019s figure skating scene across all disciplines.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By Izzy Clark It is a bright October morning in Allen, Texas, and an arena is packed to the brim. Hundreds of adoring fans wave banners emblazoned with hand-painted messages of support, eyes scanning frantically for a glimpse of a superstar. This isn\u2019t a concert, or a football match \u2013 it\u2019s the beginning of the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":49,"featured_media":4991,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"advgb_blocks_editor_width":"","advgb_blocks_columns_visual_guide":"","tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","iawp_total_views":16,"footnotes":""},"categories":[88],"tags":[985,983,984,309],"wf_post_folders":[175],"class_list":{"0":"post-4990","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sport","8":"tag-competition","9":"tag-dundee","10":"tag-skating","11":"tag-usa"},"acf":[],"author_meta":{"display_name":"Gaudie Staff","author_link":"https:\/\/www.gaudie.co.uk\/wpress\/index.php\/author\/gaudie-staff\/"},"featured_img":"https:\/\/www.gaudie.co.uk\/wpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/figure-skating-300x200.jpg","coauthors":[],"tax_additional":{"categories":{"linked":["Sports<\/a>"],"unlinked":["Sports<\/span>"]},"tags":{"linked":["Competition<\/a>","Dundee<\/a>","Skating<\/a>","USA<\/a>"],"unlinked":["Competition<\/span>","Dundee<\/span>","Skating<\/span>","USA<\/span>"]}},"comment_count":"0","relative_dates":{"created":"Posted 2 years ago","modified":"Updated 2 years ago"},"absolute_dates":{"created":"Posted on 5 December 2024","modified":"Updated on 5 December 2024"},"absolute_dates_time":{"created":"Posted on 5 December 2024 22:50","modified":"Updated on 5 December 2024 22:51"},"featured_img_caption":"Credit: Manfred Richter Via Pixabay","series_order":"","amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gaudie.co.uk\/wpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4990","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gaudie.co.uk\/wpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gaudie.co.uk\/wpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gaudie.co.uk\/wpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/49"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gaudie.co.uk\/wpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4990"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.gaudie.co.uk\/wpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4990\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4992,"href":"https:\/\/www.gaudie.co.uk\/wpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4990\/revisions\/4992"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gaudie.co.uk\/wpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4991"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gaudie.co.uk\/wpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4990"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gaudie.co.uk\/wpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4990"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gaudie.co.uk\/wpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4990"},{"taxonomy":"wf_post_folders","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gaudie.co.uk\/wpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/wf_post_folders?post=4990"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}