GRANADA – The Spanish national figure skating championship will be hosted in Granada, as a test event for the upcoming Winter Universiade next February 2015. Among the skaters that will break in the ice of the temporary venue ‘Igloo’ will be Javier Fernández, 2nd in the last ISU Grand Prix and double European Champion. In total there are 107 registered skaters. Besides Javier Fernández, some other high profile skaters will take part, i.e. Sonia Lafuente, participant at the Olympic Winter Games in Vancouver in 2010 and several times national champion of Spain; Javier Raya, twice champion of Spain and the skating pair Sara Hurtado and Adria Diaz. They have been four times national champions and they are no stranger to the Universiade as they participated in Trentino 2013. They were also the first Spanish skaters to qualify for the Olympics for the pair competition.
The competition will be held over the weekend in the Igloo Granada, next to the football field of Cármentes. Saturday will be the short programme and Sunday the long. Javier Fernández, one of the few skaters in the circuit capable of performing two quadruple jumps in the same programme, had only words of praise for Granada 2015. “We are honored to have the Winter Universiade here. We like to help to promote the ice sports”, the skater commented.
José Torres Hurtado, the Mayor of Granada, was pleased with this test event as well. “This competition is the starting signal of the ice sports at the Universiade. With this tournament we can test the installation and what better than this great event to show the city of Granada has a great love for skating. The proof is that since we have installed the temporary arena it has been full with skaters. In the case of the permanent Mulhacen Ice Pavilion, there are about 7,000 children already enrolled. “
The Granada Igloo, has a 30×60 ice floor and has a capacity for 1,500 spectators.
(Source: 2015 WU Media Dept.)
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