Recap

Valley Bay Synchro's victory and Team Unique confirms in a close-run


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Valley Bay Synchro, winners in the Junior division. (Credits: Ville Vairinen - 2023)

Sunday was all about free programs. Team Valley Bay Synchro won the junior competition and Team Unique confirmed its narrow lead in a very tight 1st Finnish qualifying competition.

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The first Finnish qualifiers took place this weekend in Helsinki. 16 Novice, 14 Junior and 4 Senior teams competed. 
Novices - Group 2
The Espoo teams make a successful start to their season. In the Novice category, Valley Bay Synchronics won Sunday's competition with its "Calling for Rain" program. This touching, catchy program brought them 75.07 points.

Kaarina's Diamond Edges took the bronze medal in these 2nd qualifications (73.01) and Starlights from Helsinki 3rd with 72.20 points. 


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Valley Bay Synchronics' new free program "Calling for Rain". (Credits: Ville Vairinen - 2023)

Juniors
Competition in the Juniors is always exciting, and this was the first time this season that teams presented both their short program on Saturday, and their free program.

Valley Bay Synchro proved to be the strongest of the 1st qualifiers, scoring 185.96 for its two performances over the weekend. The team skated a clean program to the theme "The Little Mermaid". The performance was creative and full of difficulties, with a majority of Level 4s. 

3rd after the short programs, Dream Edges finally took the silver medal on Sunday (179.08). The team skated their new free program "Home" in pale pink dresses. Team Fintastic, who finished 6th in the free programs (mainly due to a problem with the synchronized spins, which didn't count), finally came 3rd with a total of 166.19. The team also has a new free program: "Glamorous 1920s"! 

The other teams in the Juniors category also put in excellent performances. Musketeers finished 4th, Team Mystique 5th and Reflections 6th. A total of 14 teams skated this weekend. 
Seniors
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Team Unique presented its new program ”Lacrime d’Amore”. (Credits: Ville Vairinen - 2023)

The competition was already extremely tight on Saturday evening. And it stayed that way on Sunday!

Although Team Unique finished 2nd in the free programs, Mirjami Penttinen's team still won the competition with 211.92 points. With "Lacrime d'Amore", their new free program telling a love story, Team Unique won the hearts of the panel.

Helsinki Rockettes, despite a 1st place in the free programs, finished 2nd with and 0.35 points less (211.57). The team skated their "Incantation" program with speed and agility. Marigold IceUnity received the highest technical score (57.25) of the evening. So their program "They are here - Aliens!" has potential this season. The team came 3rd with a total of 210.92. Lumineers, for their part, had to reckon with several falls and finished 4th with a total of 171.51.