Ten members of the Wight Jewels team attended an ISU development camp for synchronized skating held in Budapest, Hungary, from 12 to 18 July. The girls were honoured to be asked by the National Ice Skating Association (NISA) to attend the camp as the highest ranked junior team in Britain.

The girls were put through their paces with seven days of strenuous exercise, with each day starting at 6am and finishing late into the evening. Every day included three and a half hours on the ice, a dance or fitness class, off-ice programmes, and theory classes with top synchro coach Andrea Dohany. The Jewels were teamed up with members of the Croatia’s Zagreb Snowflakes and together they achieved joint first place in a competition in which they performed a routine they had worked hard to learn during the week. The girls also received a certificate for “great development” over the week.

It was a great opportunity for the girls to train with skaters from 19 different nations all of the same age group and with a similar passion for their sport.  The skaters have returned home much more focused on their skating and determined to train harder.

Team captain Gemma Marsh said: “We all found the camp very beneficial and it has given us more inspiration for this season to work harder in order to achieve even better results than last season.”