A potential Australian figure skating star made her senior debut in the Vancouver 2010 Olympic test event tonight, attracting high praise from one of the sport’s most respected champions.

Fifteen-year-old Campbelltown school girl Cheltzie Lee finished in 15th place in the short program of the Four Continents competition at the Pacific Coliseum, registering an impressive personal best score of 43.96, despite two minor mistakes.

And at the conclusion of the first stage of the event, four-time World Champion Kurt Browning, sought out the Sydney teenager to tell her “how magnificent” he thought her performance was.

The Canadian legend told Lee and coach Kylie Fennell: ”I have been looking for you to tell you that you were wonderful and I really loved your performance”.

Underlining the high quality of the field, 2008 world championships bronze medallist Yu-Na Kim of China set a new world record short program score, earning 72.24 points from the judges to lead Canadian champion Joannie Rochette on 66.90 points going into the free program on Saturday morning, Australian time.

Reigning world champion Mao Asada of Japan could only manage sixth place in the opening stage of the competition.

“This Four Continents competition is a powerhouse event, an Olympic event minus just six real European players,” said OWI figure skating coordinator Belinda Noonan.

“This was Cheltzie's first ever senior event - she’s never even competed a domestic senior event.”

“Cheltz can jump high like very few can. She’s got the goods and these are early days.”