Jones, Nakakura win skating title
Advertiser Staff
Mike Jones photo
Jennifer Jones and Asia Nakakura went from being a curiosity at a national skating event to champions.
Jennifer Jones, left, and Asia Nakakura won the United States Figure Skating 2004 National Showcase Championships.
The Hawai'i duo captured first place at the United States Figure Skating 2004 National Showcase Championships on Aug. 7 at Plano, Texas.
"Coming from Hawai'i, there's not a lot of expectations on us and we were likened to the Jamaican bobsled team," said Jones, who teaches choreography at the Ice Palace. "We got teased a lot."
The Plano event was the first national championship in the United States for artistic skating, said Jones, who described artistic skating as "kind of a mix between a beauty pageant and a skating event."
Artistic skating emphasizes the artistic portion of the skate, where in figure skating the artistic mark is the No. 2 factor. Competitors can use props on the ice, and the emphasis isn't on jumps and spins, as in figure skating.
"It adds a different element to skating that you don't usually see," Jones said of artistic skating. "It's essentially what you see when you pay to go see an ice show."
With this being the first national championship for artistic skating, Jones and Nakakura, a University of Hawai'i student, and the rest of the competitors weren't certain how it would go.
"We didn't know what to expect," Jones said. "I think (the competitors) were all in the same boat."
Nonetheless, the Hawai'i pair exceeded their expectations.
"Because we live out here, we don't get a chance to see what our competitors are doing on the Mainland," Jones said. "We just wanted to go to have fun and see what it was like."
Tennis
Wai'alae Iki 5 wins AAU championship
Wai'alae Iki 5 team, front from left: Kelli Shiroma, Keri Sugiyama, Sara Yoshinaga and Jennifer Young. Back: Jon Okada, Daniel Adachi, Daniel Llarenas, Michael Okai and coach Lon Okada.
The Wai'alae Iki 5 team captured first place in tennis at the Amateur Athletic Union Junior Olympic Games, Aug. 1 to 5 at Des Moines, Iowa.
The team went 8-0 in head-to-head competition, winning 460 out of a possible 480 games.
Ke'ehi Rackets Red from Pearl City placed fifth in the competition and the Hilo Junior Tennis Club was seventh.
