Aussie pair skate their way into Worlds
ACT Academy of Sport
Nov 8, 2005

ACTAS figure skater Stuart Beckingham and his pairs partner Emma Brien (Sydney) have qualified to represent Australia and compete at the 2006 World Figure Skating Championships in Calgary, Canada, following their performance at the historic Karl Schafer Memorial Championship in Vienna, Austria (October 12 - 16).

The duo, whilst not selected for the 2006 Torino Winter Olympic Games, received a high enough score to qualify for next year's World Championships.

24 year-old Stuart and 20 year-old Emma have gone from strength to strength since becoming a pair in March this year. The reigning Australia's Senior Pairs Champions wanted to improve their speed as well as their choreography, presentation and program performance to bolster their program score in Vienna.

"We knew it was going to be tough to get on the Olympic Team so we went in for the best possible score. We ended up with 89 points, which is about 20 more than we were getting six weeks earlier so I am very happy with our rate of improvement," Stuart Beckingham said.

Beckingham and his skating partner will now prepare for the prestigious ISU Four Continents Championships, to be held in Colorado Springs, USA, in January, which is considered an important pre-cursor to Worlds.