Jaca summer Stage, exhibition of 24th August 2002

This year we had the chance to travel to Jaca for the last of the shows scheduled. On Saturday morning we went to the ice rink, in that time Alexei Mishin was in class with some of the stage skaters that participated at night show.
After the class, we met Mishin, he remembered us from last year in Madrid and came to greet as kind and attentive as ever, he invited us to the exhibition and agreed for an interview in the evening.
Unfortunately we couldn’t interview him because there wasn’t enough time, our travel was very short and he was busy working with skaters. 

The ice rink was plenty of people for the show. I would call it as “the night of the promises” because we had the chance to see novice and junior skaters from different countries:

1st part:
Patricia Lafuente (Spain)
Stephen Bowell (Great Britain)
Victoria Stickelberger (Austria)
Andreas Fuch (Austria)
Esther de la Cruz (Spain)
Rubén Barrera (Spain)
Naomi Miles (Great Britain)
Ross Tomsen (Great Britain)
Cristiana Di Natale (Italy)

2nd part:
Natalia González (Spain)
Kristine Grill (Austria)
Artur Kltill (Russia)
Inés Ortiz (Spain)
Michaela Gross (Austria)
Joanne Webber (Great Britain)
Rebeca García (Spain)
Adrian Schultheiss (Sweden)
Laura Fernández (Spain)

Most of these skaters are very well known for the Spanish fans because they come back every summer to participate at the stage and we can see how they´re improving year by year. The audience enjoyed with all the skaters, but specially cheered to the youngest, Stephen Bowell (10 years) and Artur Kltill (9 years).
Also Cristiana Di Natale got a big ovation, she had flu but wanted to skate at show, and after her program she came back to ice to thank people’s applause.
This evening Spain was represented by seven skaters of CH Igloo from Madrid. This club has one of the main group of junior skaters in the country.  Rebeca García performed her new SP about flamenco-fusion music. Laura Fernández is the current junior champion and, in my opinion, the main promise of Spanish figure skating right now, she skated brilliantly and also got big ovations. One skater that surprised me was Rubén Barrera, specially for his fast skating and high and clean jumps.

Artur Kltill, a new young student of Alexei Mishin, skated to Charles Chaplin music, he wore black body suit with a white bow tie and a little moustache painted. It was very funny to see “so small thing” doing simple and double jumps, and at the end the fans gave him a puppet.

After the exhibition it was prepared a little reception to Mishin with all the skaters and coaches, we would like to thank to CH Jaca and CH Igloo for their invitation. Firsts the president of CH Jaca, Eduardo Roldán, introduced to Alexei Mishin as one of the best coaches in figure skating that comes to Jaca for 6th time to direct the summer stage and thanked his work and hoped that he will come back next year, then he gave him a commemorative plaque. Alexei Mishin thanked the present, the hospitality of the people and the good work he had consulting coaches and skaters. He remembered the history of  Evgeni Plushenko in Jaca, as he said, Plushenko started his international career there, he became famous there, and he got his first 3 axel in Jaca´s ice rink seven years ago. 



Review by Paloma -photos coming soon...


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