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This is our first trip on the international circuit and it was an eye-opening experience! It was great that we were able to have this experience. The ride from the airport to the hotel was a little rainy however when we got to the hotel, it was like walking into paradise. The hotel was just colossal and they had two buildings each with at least 30 rooms on each floor! Not only did this hotel host the Canadian team but all the skaters from all over the world that were attending the competition. We were treated so well by the hotel, the rooms were enormous and the food was amazing; all and all it was very nice.
Not only was the hotel nice, but the Cez Arena, the rink, was a rink that hallways that ran on forever. It was just one of the biggest rinks we have seen in our lives. It was a journey every time we went into the rink. The facility catered to the needs of all the people attending. The warm up area was just phenomenal. It was a big area where a big group of skaters could warm up and no one would get in anyone’s way. Both the competition and the practice rink were nice. The practice rink, however, was always a journey to get through. The hallways went on forever!!!
We left Toronto on Monday night and arrived in Ostrava Tuesday. We had a team dinner that night and it was an amazing all you can eat buffet at the hotel. We were fed like kings and queens so I was not worried about the rest of the meals to come. The first practice occurred on Wednesday and it was insane. The aggression that the other teams had was so different from what we were used to. However, we kept our ground and did everything like we were suppose to.
The competition started on Thursday and we were so excited to be there. We started the compulsory dance and ended up in 6th place out of 17 teams, which was amazing for our first time on an international competition. The next was the OD. During the morning practice, Carol decides to switch our lift to another lift to try and squeeze as many points as we could and we handled it with care and the OD went as planed, allowing us to stay in 6th place.
On the last day of competition, was the freedance. We had to really hold our ground because the points were really close together. We managed to hold our ground and ended up 6th overall, which was a great achievement. We had great skates for all the programs beating all previous competition scores.
Olivia Martins & Alvin Chau
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