Coach and student both off to compete in Oceania figure skating finals – Stuff.co.nz

DAVID BURROUGHS

Last updated13:50, August 14 2017

ANDY JACKSON/STUFF

Figure skating student Niamh Quinn, 15, and her coach Michelle O'Doherty are both off to represent New Zealand at the Oceania champs in Brisbane next month.

A coach and student will be cheering each other on from the rinkside when they both compete in the Oceania figure skating champs in September.

New Plymouth student Niamh Quinn, 15, and her coach Michelle O'Doherty, 35, are both headed to Brisbane next month to represent New Zealand in the sport.

It will be first time Quinn has competed in the international competition but O'Doherty competed there when she was 16.

ANDY JACKSON/STUFF

Quinn began skating six years ago when she stopped taking dance classes.

She then put her competing on hold while she had children, before making a comebackandwinning silver last year.

READ MORE: *New Plymouth skating rink suffers major flood damage days before a big tournament *Artistic roller skate national championships bring in New Zealand's best skaters *Nelson's artistic skaters share in the spoils at Southern Area champs *Taranaki skaters ready to take on New Zealand's best

O'Dohertyonlygot back into the sport when she saw Quinn in a learn-to-skate class six years ago and realised her potential, and decided to coach her.

ANDY JACKSON/STUFF

Quinn won third in the cadet solo dancer category at the New Zealand nationals while O'Doherty won gold in the advanced masters division.

"I actually spotted Niamh skating because I used to do roller derby, so I spotted Niamh and asked her who was coaching her and then that year we won the national title for her grade," O'Doherty said.

"I had four months to get her ready for nationals."

Quinnand O'Doherty both competed at the New Zealand nationals in July, with Quinncoming third in the cadet solo dancer category while O'Doherty won gold in the advanced masters division.

Unlike some of the other categories, Quinnsaid her dance was fairly structured.

"You get given a pattern and music and then if you don't follow the pattern or if you're out of time to the music then you get, like, points down and then there's all the technical things," she said.

She said it was hard to explain why she loved the sport so much.

"Sometimes I wake up and I'm like I don't want to do that I'd rather do another thing.

"But then when I can't skate, I get really...I don't know, I get really sad when I can't skate."

Quinn's mumMerrynQuinnsaid her daughterhad been taking dance lessons but stopped when the student nurse who was taking them had to move on.

After seeing an advertisement in the school notices for skating lessons, she took her along to try it out and said her daughter has never looked back.

"It's a sport, hard work and training and all those things, but it also involved performance and dance and creativity and then for the girls, make-up and the costumes,"she said.

"It is quite a hard sport because you train all year and then you go off to nationals and you have two to three minutes on the floor to do your thing."

-Stuff

Read the rest here:

Coach and student both off to compete in Oceania figure skating finals - Stuff.co.nz