Figure Skating bronze for Kerry in ISU Challenger Series

Figure skater Brendan Kerry held off strong competition on the weekend to take overall bronze at the Lombardia Trophy in Bergamo, Italy, making him the first Australian man to reach the ISU Challenger Series podium.

Ranked 15th in the world, the NSW Institute of Sport athlete delivered his most technically difficult short program so far, including two different quads for the first time, scoring 82.30 points just behind USA’s Jason Brown for third place going into the free program.

Skating to ‘Everyone wants to rule the world’, 22-year-old Kerry stepped up the artistic complexity of his new short program and was rewarded with a personal best Program Components score that bettered his 2017 World Championships.

Current World silver medallist Shoma Uno from Japan skated a majestic short, also with two quads, amassing a lead of over twenty points over Brown and Kerry.

“It was a strong competition, which was good and very motivating to be on the ice with Shoma,” Kerry said.

“The event went well for my first time trying a two-quad short program.”

Skating after Uno and brown in the final group in the free program, Kerry opened with a stunning quad toe, tripled out the salchow and landed two triple axels in a performance to a Native-American themed free program that is a major departure from his previous character-style pieces.

Placing fifth in the free program with a healthy 150.75 points, Kerry again made a career PB – this time for the technical score of 80.15, an overall total of 233.05 and held on to take bronze with Uno winning gold (319.84) and Brown on 259.88 points with silver.

Kerry’s aim was to match his 2017 World Championship performances as a minimum start to the new season.

“The free skate was rough and still a bit lacking in stamina, so I held back to just get the tech done. But we got the job done and I’m really close to where last season ended, which I think is a great place to start.”

“Overall this is a good place to begin the Olympic season,” he said.

“Training has been a bit up and down as it’s always hard to get the season going.”

The NSWIS Scholarship Holder will head to Bratislava for the Ondrej Nepala Trophy next week for his second ISU Challenger event.