GAWLER’S Skate Crew Artistic club celebrated two of its members winning silverware at the Australian Artistic Skating Championships in Queensland last month.
Lucy West and Olivia Burg both claimed medals at the event, held at Mount Warren Park, while Dekoda Hall took home fourth place as the trio represented South Australia.
West, who is also the coach at Skate Crew Artistic, was delighted to claim gold and secure the chance to represent Australia at the upcoming Oceania Artistic Skating Championships in Melbourne, in October, as a result.
“This year, my goal was to win the event and I succeeded,” she said.
“There’ll be a lot of hard work in the next two months, so I’m looking forward to the challenge.”
Despite her own success at the event, West admitted she was more nervous for both Dekoda and Olivia than she was for herself.
“Olivia did an awesome skate, she was super close to first, so for her to pull out second in her first nationals was amazing,” she said.
“Dekoda was in a tough event and placed fourth out of 13, which was huge for her.
“We’re excited about next year, we have some big goals and hopefully we’ll be back with a few more medals.”
Both Dekoda and Olivia said they exceeded their expectations.
“I went hoping for 10th, and I was really excited – happy, but nervous – to finish fourth,” Dekoda said.
“I felt happy, excited and nervous after coming second,” Olivia added.
“I did much better than I expected, I was hoping for third, so that was a bonus.”