After a month long break as a result of a mid-season injury, Lauren Tough - an IYSF Scholar - recovered to participate in the British Solo Ice Dance Championships (BSIDC) last month. In addition, Lauren was recently accepted onto the Team GB Regional 2 Development Squad for the fourth consecutive year.
These were the two objectives set out in Lauren's IYSF application for this season and she has achieved both despite the injury setback.
At the BSIDC Lauren chose to enter at a higher level of competition than she could have, deciding to enter the Basic Novice Solo Ice Dance category. That is testament to Lauren's ambition. We are delighted to hear that Lauren finished 11th overall even in this higher level of competition. The overall placing was calculated from three dances: Pattern Dance 1 (American Waltz) - 11th; Patter Dance 2 (The Blues) - 8th; Free Dance - 11th. This is an excellent result given the higher level of competition and injury setback.
IYSF wish to pass on their congratulations to Lauren and her family.
Over the past few months, Lauren has also attended in a number of camps and competitions. At the end of May, Lauren attended Mark Hanretty's Components Camp to help develop the technical aspects of her ice dancing. In June, Lauren competed in the Streatham Solo Ice Dance in London. At Streatham, Lauren skated two pattern dances and one free dance, placing 6th in the pattern dance and 8th in the free dance.
Lauren's mother, Shona, commented: "Lauren has been given a huge boost by being accepted onto Inverurie Youth Sport Foundation (IYSF) scholarship programme. This funding has given and will continue to give Lauren a massive support to help her achieve her long term goals within this sport."
She continued: "Lauren's coach, Ann, has been fantastic in helping Lauren achieve all these goals this season and has enlisted a new coach Jon Behari to work alongside Lauren for this last few months to help her with her choreography and performance. Lauren has benefited hugely from this and will remain working with Jon after the British Solo Ice Dance Championships."
A number of photos of Lauren at the above mentioned events and of press coverage in local newspapers are linked below.
Lauren With Coaches Jon And Ann
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