Local skating team glide to success at the Blackburn Opens

From their Northern Ireland coaching base at Dundonald International Ice Bowl, former Olympic skaters Kevin van der Perren and Jenna McCorkell led four of their local skating team to success at the ‘Blackburn Opens’ competition in England, earlier this month, including Lisburn skater Jodie Dowling.

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Competing across several categories, the local skaters each secured notable competition success, between them securing a second-place silver medal, as well as fourth, fifth and eighth place positions.

Taking newly choregraphed programmes to the ice, they also increased their previous personal best scores by an average of five points each, and achieved competitive national test passes enabling progression to the next skating level.

This success comes after intense focus by international coach Kevin van der Perren and his wife and coaching partner Jenna McCorkell, to develop the technical skating and presentation skills of their Dundonald based team.

Former Olympian and Dundonald International Ice Bowl based coach Kevin Van der Perren, pictured with skaters (L-R) Madison Moore (Comber), twins Emily and Katie Young (Belfast) and Jodie Dowling (Lisburn), following their recent competition success at Blackburn Opens.

Kevin said: “After months of hard work to enhance core skating skills and develop new techniques, we are immensely proud our NI team’s performance, as they competed against skaters from across the UK.

“Our ambition, as we coach and develop our skating team at Dundonald, is to build the next generation of local skating talent here in Northern Ireland.”

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Jenna added: “After 20 years of professional skating and coaching internationally, I am delighted to have relocated back ‘home’ to where my skating career began. Working in partnership with Kevin, it is immensely rewarding to see the accelerated progress of our local skating team.

“As we continue to nurture local talent, I am excited to see how ice skating can further develop and continue to grow as a competitive sport in NI.”