Dundee skater Natasha McKay made it an incredible six wins on the spin at the British Championships as she continued her domination of the sport in the UK.
Since 2017 the British title has belonged to the 27-year-old Dundonian with McKay winning both the 2022 and 2023 editions this calendar year following a Covid-enforced break.
McKay wasn’t the only Dundee champion in Sheffield, however, as Anastasia Viapan-Law and Luke Digby were impressive in winning the Senior Pairs and Lucy Hay and Kyle McLeod won the Junior Pairs event.
Coach Simon Briggs said: “It couldn’t have been better for our Ice Dundee team at the British Championships this year.
“Four categories and four medals, three of those gold. I am very proud of our skaters for putting in the hard work, keeping their cool and reclaiming their titles.
“Natasha McKay won her sixth consecutive title which is just unbelievable.”
‘Perfect ending’
Despite being the five-time winner and favourite going into the event, things didn’t go all McKay’s way in the Senior Ladies event.
She had to come from behind after finishing second in the Short Program, seeing off Kristen Spours of Swindon with a champion’s performance in the Free Program.
After performing at her first Winter Olympics earlier in 2022 in Beijing, McKay has kept the success coming to seal her place at next year’s European Championships with this victory.
“I still can’t quite believe it, I just won my sixth British Championship title!” McKay said.
“I am very proud to be bringing another title home to Dundee.
“This is the perfect ending to a great year in which I also fulfilled my dream and competed at the Olympics.”
Pressure on
Emma Lyons also came back to the City of Discovery with a medal, finishing third in the Junior Ladies.
🤯🤯🤯🤯 I JUST CAN'T KEEP UP! ICE DUNDEE HAVE TWO MORE BRITISH CHAMPIONS!
Lucy Hay and Kyle McLeod are the Junior Pairs British Champions and Anastasia Vaipan-Law and Luke Digby are the Senior Pairs British Champions!
All from @Ice_Dundee based here in Dundee! pic.twitter.com/sdtCqvNiHn
— Dundee Culture (@DundeeCulture) December 4, 2022
For Vaipan-Law and Digby the pressure was on as they bid to retain their Senior Pair title from last year.
And they realised that with their best performance of the season.
Vaipan-Law said: “I am very happy with our performances at this year’s British and bringing home our second title.
“Now back to Dundee to work hard for the European and World Skating Championships.”
The European event takes place next month in Finland while the Worlds head to Japan in March.
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