New Zealand senior ladies champion Morgan Figgins made her debut
Vick444~No
June 16, 2008
Three-time New Zealand senior ladies champion Morgan
Figgins made her debut in international senior
competition this season when she finished 27th at the
2008 Four Continents Championships in Goyang, Korea.
Later in the season, she finished 52nd at Worlds. Figgins
was 33rd last year in her international debut at the
World Junior Figure Skating Championships in Oberstdorf,
Germany.
"That was the first time I smiled at a competition,"
Figgins said of Four Continents. "My goal was to smile
and I did. I had a really bad year last year with
injuries. In September 2007, a girl ran into me in
practice at Australian Nationals and injured the tendons
around my ankle. Then I had a glandular problem and
tonsillitis."
The lively 16-year-old began skating when she was six.
"My mom used to rollerskate and I wanted to do the same
but not the same," she said. "My grandparents mentioned
figure skating and I told them that I'd give it a go. I
did Learn to Skate for two years, and then started taking
private lessons when I was eight. I started in Auckland,
but my parents wanted to move to a quiet bay so my family
moved to Dunedin five years ago. I started taking lessons
from a Russian coach there, Fanis Shakirizianu."