April 02, 2007—The All Stars Club had six mens skaters competing at Nationals this year: Dominic Soh, in PrePreliminary Mens A, his older brother Benjamin Soh in PrePreliminary Mens B, Max Ko in Prejuvenile Mens, Maxel Lee in Juvenile Mens, Ricardo Lachika in Adult Mens Gold and Sunny Man in Adult Mens Masters.
The Soh brothers were competing for the first time at Nationals. Both boys started skating with the SISA ECCA class at Henry Park Primary School in early 2004. Dominic now attends Anglo Chinese while Benjamin is at St. Joseph's Institution.
In Prejuvenile Mens, Max Ko put down a clean program that included an axel and a double salchow sequence as well as a double loop-single toe combo. Nine year-old Max had a deceptively difficult piece of music in Paul Desmond's ‘Take Five' jazz masterpiece. With its irregular 5/4 rhythm, ‘Take Five' demands great timing and control from performers. Max earned a total score of 38.45.
Juvenile Mens Champion Maxel Lee brought an entirely different mood to the ice, performing to the soundtrack from Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story. Maxel, nine years old, received uniformly good marks in his program components. Maxel achieved extremely difficult positions in his spiral sequence, thanks to his great flexibility. And despite his young age, Maxel received a Level 2 rating for his final combination spin.
In Adult Mens Gold event, Ricardo Lachika had to deal with problems related to the sound system. However, he landed a double toe-single toe combination as well as an axel-double salchow sequence.
Coach Sunny Man, competing in Adult Masters, drew roaring applause from the audience when he took the ice. His program also was plagued by technical glitches in the sound system. He made a solid attempt at the double axel but could not hold the landing. However, Sunny proved his willingness to put himself out there with a program of drama and pathos. Sunny was among the top five in program component scores at the competition. |
