Ice dancers Carolane Soucisse and Shane Firus this afternoon continued to make history for Ireland as they finished 12th in the rhythm dance segment of the ice dance event at the ISU European Figure Skating Championships in Kaunas, Lithuania to qualify for the free dance tomorrow evening (13 January).
Soucisse and Firus skated 23rd of the 33 competing teams participating at these European Championships with only the top 20 teams advancing to the free dance. Performing to a Rick James medley for their 1980s themed routine, they opened with a Midline Step Sequence and followed that with a Synchronised Twizzle Sequence. They next nailed a Pattern Type Step Sequence and a Choreographic Rhythm Sequence. They closed out strongly with a difficult Level 4 Rotational Lift. They earned 66.69 points, a new season best. In addition, they also obtained the Minimum Technical Score required for this March’s World Figure Skating Championships in Montreal, Canada.
Soucisse and Firus have also become the first Irish participants in the 133 year long history of the European Championships to qualify for the second portion of their event. They will skate eighth out of the twenty duos competing in tomorrow evening’s (Saturday, 13 January) free dance which begins at 16:30.
“It was really fun to perform in front of such a big audience,” Soucisse said. “It felt like a World Championship which is great preparation for Montreal.”
“We really wanted to do Ireland proud to the best of our abilities and I think we did that today,” Firus said. “For the free dance tomorrow we will try to get the crowd behind us again and execute it like we have done in practice.”
