Disappointing Europeans for Jenna
Thursday, 28 January 2010
Coleraine ice skater Jenna McCorkell skated against Doctor’s advice at the European Championships. Unfortunately she produced a below par performance in the free programme to finish 14th.
COLERAINE ice skater Jenna McCorkell's hopes of achieving her best ever European Championship finish evaporated after a disappointing free programme in Tallinn on Saturday.
Jenna was 11th after producing a personal best short programme on Friday but she struggled on Saturday and finished in 14th place.
The Coleraine woman's previous best finish at the Europeans was eighth in 2008 and she was ninth last year. Unfortunately Jenna picked up a virus and was not at her best on Saturday.
It was later stated that McCorkell had skated "against doctor's advice" after having to take three courses of antibiotics after Christmas.
"Jenna finally succumbed to the viral relapse that had worked on her prior to the short programme," said McCorkell's spokeswoman Karin McBride.
"The demanding programme just proved too much for her and her energy just went towards the end."
McCorkell will now take a rest in an attempt to regain fitness ahead of the Winter Olympics next month.
The Northern Irishwoman was unable to complete a triple lutz early on in Saturday's programme and under-rotated on a couple of her subsequent jumps.
A fluffed triple toe-loop saw her putting a hand on the ice and she also missed an attempted double axel.
BBC ice skating commentator Robin Cousins felt the 23-year-old's performance was "tentative".
"She was landing all the jumps in the warm-up and I thought she was set for a good performance today," added the 1980 Olympic gold medallist.
Jenna's score of 74.26 was well down on her season's best of 93.76.
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