McCorkell finds her feet

The new British champion Jenna McCorkell picked herself up from a fall here yesterday to come through the qualification stage of the European Championships.

McCorkell, 16, originally from Northern Ireland but now training in Coventry, fell on her flip and cleanly landed only two triple jumps to gain marks ranging from 4.2 to 4.8 for technical merit and 4.0 to 5.1 for presentation.

"My performance was not too bad today and luckily I didn't hurt myself when I fell," she said. "This is my first European Championships and I didn't know what to expect. Everything seems bigger than I am used to; I've never skated in front of so many people before. I was a bit tentative and only achieved about 60-70% of what I can do. I've been skating so much better in training."

Her coach Yuri Bureiko echoed her comments. "That was a good start. Our aim today was to perform the elements. We can start to enjoy the competition at tomorrow's short programme and we want to include a triple-triple combination jump in Thursday's free-skating stage.

"Jenna came with me to Russia for two weeks after Christmas so we could continue her training. She's been working hard and deserves to do well."

The Russians have put a firm stamp on the competition at this stage, with last year's silver medallist Irina Slutskaya, last year's bronze medallist Viktoria Volchkova and the new Russian champion Elena Sokolova taking the top places.

The International Skating Union's new interim judging system introduced in the wake of the Olympic Games judging controversy is being used here for the first time. Ten judges were on duty for this qualifying round but the marks from only seven counted. The seven are selected by computer and no one knows who gave which mark, a lack of accountability which is causing concern.