FIGURE SKATING: Australian Figure Skating pair, Harley Windsor and Katia Alexandrovskaya are in a strong position to secure an Olympic quota for Australia at the 2017 ISU Challenger Series Nebelhorn Trophy.

The World Junior Champions, who are amongst 16 pairs competing for five berths to the PyeongChang Games, recorded a personal best score of 64.91 in their opening Short Program skate. They currently sit fourth overall but are less than a point behind Austria who sit in third.

Leading the pairs competition are European Champions Evgenia Tarasova and Vladimir Morozov of Russia ahead of World silver medallists Aliona Savchenko and Bruno Massot from Germany, both of whom have already secured Olympic qualification. This means Windsor and Alexandrovskaya are ranked second in terms of securing the PyeongChang 2018 quota.

With 16 Olympic quota spots being awarded at the 2017 ISU World Figure Skating Championships, originally four additional qualifications were available at the Nebelhorn Trophy. With France returning a second Pairs quota place, a fifth Olympic spot has become available for competitors with pairs from Russia, Canada, USA and two pairs from Germany having already booked their tickets to the 2018 Winter Games, leaving a remaining 11 countries to vie for qualification.

Windsor and Alexandrovskaya will compete in the Pairs Free Program on Saturday at 12:00am AEST (Friday 4pm local time).

Fellow Australian, Kailani Craine will also be vying for Olympic qualification as she competes against 33 individual female competitors for six 2018 quota spots. Craine will take to the ice at 8:47pm AEST (11:47am local time)

Additional quota spots may become available if countries return Olympic quota places.

Watch the Aussies in action here: http://www.dailymotion.com/skatingvideos 

Ashleigh Knight
olympics.com.au