The Tayside Trophy took place last week with five skaters representing Ireland.
The international competition, which took place in the Dundee Ice Arena, Scotland is a two day event which takes place annually.
Fifteen year old Sophia Tkacheva was the first to take the ice in the Junior Women's Short Programme and she earned herself a score of 28.2 points, putting her in ninth place.
Five Irish figure skaters competed at the Tayside Trophy over the weekend. Did you catch any of their performances online or in person? If you did, leave a comment and let us know which programmes you saw! ☘⛸🇮🇪
More photos: https://t.co/FfMtgazojh#FigureSkating #TeamIreland pic.twitter.com/B4x4EXVf3u— ISAI (@IceSkateIRL) November 8, 2021
The secondary school student from Wexford has gained international recognition for her skating abilities over the last number of years. At just nine years old she was offered a summer scholarship to the prestigious ice skating camp at the Shattuck-St Mary’s school in Faribault, Minnesota - where she was the only child from outside the US.
Six years on and just off the back of a tournament in Slovakia, the Gorey skater is still taking to the ice.
The second day in the Tayside tournament saw Tkacheva skate in the junior Women's Free Skating, where she performed to “Voila” by Barbara Pravi. Earning herself tenth place the skater said she was “disappointed” in her performance.
“I made some silly mistakes,” Tkacheva said in a statement. “I am happy that I attempted my triple Salchow. I just need to learn to combine the hard jumps and the doubles and to stay focused no matter what happens during the programme and to work on my elements overall.”
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Robyn Foster, who is on her second season with the national team, followed in the footsteps of Tkacheva with a stunning debut for Ireland. She earned herself eight place in the Junior Women’s Short Programme and seventh place in the Free Skating.
“It was a really good experience to skate for Ireland,” Foster, who trains in Coventry,England said.
“Even though I made some mistakes, I got a personal best, so I know there is so much more room for improvement next time. I’m going to work on being more confident with my Axels and enjoying my programmes to the fullest.”
Foster and Tkacheva joined their Irish teammates Conor Stakelum, Dillon Judge and Sam McAllister at the tournament.
Judge earned himself a personal best score and a second place ranking in the Junior Men’s category.
In the Senior Men's category McAllister and Stakelum earned themselves tenth and eleventh place.
The team Ireland crew will take to the ice again in the Warsaw Cup, an international tournament that is part of the Ice Skating Union Challenger Series.
