So good to be back in Taipei. This is my 3rd time at the ISU Four Continents Championships here. I have always loved competitions here as the facilities and logistics are awesome. ..not to mention the organisers always managed to out do themselves each time !
To start off, the venue is the Taipei Arena or more affectionately know as ' Little Gianormous Egg' ( Xiao Ju Dan), where many a superstar has held concerts in.
The outside was aptly lined with countless banners announcing the event.
In 3 days time, there will be countless people here, including the Japanese who will arrive in specially chartered flights !
There are 2 Olympics sized ice rinks here.. One in the Arena proper ( Main rink) and the other one at the annex next door ( Practice rink) .
Main rink
Practice rink
This already is paradise to Malaysian skaters as we only have 2 Olympic sized rinks in the whole country !
Anyways, coming back to this Championship ... This is the 2nd largest annual Figure Skating competition in the sport, the first being the World Championships. ( the Winter Olympics is once every 4 years). The Four Continents stands for 4 out of the 5 rings representing the all the continents in the Olympic logo. The 5th continent, Europe, have their own version, called the European Championship.
There are 3 practice days until the competition begins on Wed. Today's sessions , one in the morning and one in the afternoon were held at the practice rink and main rink respectively .
Julian was also invited to attend the Press Conference held today for the local media. This was a first for us !
The only other invitees ( other than the local skaters ) were the Americans and a Japanese pair, so it is a rather big deal for us. Malaysian skaters have never been invited to an international Figure Skating Press Conference before ... so yeah..it was a first of sorts !
Ever wondered what it looks like behind the scenes of an arena... What secret rooms are there ? Are there tunnels that the superstars take to get to the stage?
I'll do a little tour of that tomorrow....fingers crossed that I have time.... So stay tuned !