McCorkell eyes improvements despite season's best

By Chris Cottrell, Sportsbeat, in Sheffield

DEFENDING champion Jenna McCorkell insisted she was far from her peak despite a season's best short program at the British Ice Skating Championships.

ROOM FOR IMPROVEMENT: Jenna McCorkell insists she can go better despite season's best short program at National Champs in Sheffield (Getty Images)

The 22-year old looks set for her seventh national crown in Sheffield after her short program score of 49.60 put her in control.

And having skated a personal best to her free skate routine on her Cup of Russia debut in October, a pb overall score could be on the cards in Sheffield.

But with three months until the Northern Irish skater makes her Olympics bow in Vancouver, McCorkell is adamant she is far from the finished product.

"I can't complain too much with being in first but I could have been faster and scored higher levels for my sequences," said McCorkell who recorded just one maximum level four element for her flying sit spin.

"It's great to score a season's best as well but I know I can score at least four or five points more than that.

"I generally felt good on the ice but there were quite a few areas where I could have cut out some errors.

"I made a mistake on a flip and there were a couple of other things here and there so there are still things to work on."

While McCorkell was fast to highlight the room for improvement in her Sheffield performance, she did admit to her relief at putting her below-par showing at Skate Canada last weekend behind her.

On a day of redemption at Sheffield, which also saw British number one pair Stacey Kemp and David King put their Grand Prix nightmares to bed, McCorkell insisted she was surprised to have stayed so focused in Sheffield.

"That was definitely better than Skate Canada," said McCorkell, who was one of many fallers at the final Grand Prix of the season in Kitchener.

"I don't know what went wrong there. You try not to dwell on it if something goes wrong but I think it was just one of those things.

"All the competitors were having problems staying on their feet there for some reason.

"But considering how tired I am, I'm happy with how focused I was today.

"It's difficult to maintain that level at home because you're always bumping into people and getting distracted so it was good to stay on top of things today."

Last year's runner-up Karly Robertson lies second in the women's competition on 35.73 while Laura Kean is just behind on 32.82.

VIEW WOMEN'S STANDINGS AFTER SHORT PROGRAM ON PAGE 2