The senior World Synchronized Skating Championships take place in Courmayeur, Italy, this week from 3 to 5 April. iowskaters aims to be there in person, travel and skiing injuries permitting, and may be able to post pix and updates from the event itself. This will probably happen on our Facebook page.

We’re there to cheer along Team GB – Team Spirit of Wales & West – as well as gasp in awe at our some of our personal favourites, including Team Surprise and Team Boomerang of Sweden, and Finnish entries Marigold Ice Unity and Rockettes. Team Surprise will be aiming to put injury behind them – accidents in training ruled them out of their own national championships – and no doubt gunning for Russian team Paradise.

Live streaming of the event is available on the ISU Skating Channel,  except in Canada, Japan, and the USA. The opening ceremony is due to start at 17:00 CET on Friday 4 April, with the short programme beginning at 18:00 (CET).

This year the names behind the country designations are:

Australia: Nova
Belgium: Temptation
Canada 1: Nexxice
Canada 2: Les Supremes
Croatia: Zagreb Snowflakes
Czech Republic: Olympia
Spain: Fusion
Finland 1: Marigold Ice Unity
Finland 2: Rockettes
France: Les Zoulous
Great Britain: Team Spirit
Germany: Berlin 1
Hungary: Passion
Italy: Hot Shivers
Japan: Jingu Ice Messengers Grace
Mexico: Merging Edge
Russia 1: Paradise
Russia 2: Tartarstan
Switzerland: Cool Dreams
Sweden 1: Team Surprise
Sweden 2: Team Boomerang
USA 1: Haydenettes
USA 2: Crystallettes

That’s an impressive 23 teams. It’s a delight to see Mexico again represented – Mexican synchronized skating fans accounted for most of the hits that iowskaters.com achieved last year for the worlds.

Event website: www.2014synchroworlds.com

Live streaming: http://livemanager.eurovision.edgesuite.net/isu/site/index.html