Best hot on ice
Southern Gazette
27 March 2007

SOME of WA's elite ice skaters are learning from the best in the lead-up to the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver.

Ukraine coach Valentin Nikolayev recently returned to the Cockburn Ice Arena for the third year to teach local figure skaters, who are fast making a name for themselves.

South Perth girl Jaimee Nobbs (11) won gold in the novice ladies division at the Australian Figure Skating Championships in Brisbane last August and Applecross girl Kristen Secola (11) won gold in the primary ladies division.

Melville boy Mathew Tinson (16) was ninth in the junior mens division at the Australian Youth Olympic Festival in Sydney during January.

Nikolayev s former student Valentin Kadzevitch and his wife Irina Stavroskaia both coach the figure skaters at Cockburn. They invited Nikolayev to run the training camp.

Kadzevitch said there was a dramatic improvement in the students each time they met the Ukraine coach.

The influence of a world-class coach is imperative if Australia wants to be competitive on a world scale, he said.