Team Unique, Marigold IceUnity, Helsinki Rockettes and Lumineers... Four Senior teams will compete to get the first place. / Credits: Kirsi Laine Photography

This weekend is the annual top moment of the synchro season in Finland. The Finnish National Championships will be held in Turku on Saturday and Sunday and there will be a tight struggle of in three categories: Senior, Junior and Advanced Novice. In the Senior division, it’ll be also is a play of high stakes: which team will represent Finland as a Team Finland 1 at the World Synchronized Skating Championships in Helsinki in April 12th-13th, 2019?

Last year the qualification system changed and it is the same this year. The winner of the Nationals gets automatically the nomination to the Worlds. The other Finnish representative; team FIN 2 will be the team, which has the best score of the season besides the winner.

Marigold IceUnity leads now with 229.56 points. Helsinki Rockettes is the second with 227.11 points; the third is Team Unique having scores 226.27 and the fourth is Lumineers with 196.32 points.

The Winter Universiade will be the last chance

Remember last season, the situation was solved right after the Nationals we know who were the two qualified teams. It'll be different this year, the excitement may go on for one week more. The Winter Universiade 2019 – Winter Olympic Games for the students – will be held in Krasnoyarsk, Russia from 2th to 12th March. Marigold IceUnity and Team Unique will compete there in March 8th-19th. This competition will be the last chance to reach the highest score of the season and to redeem a place in the Worlds if these teams haven´t earned it earlier.

In the Junior category, the Finnish representatives for the Junior World Championships were already chosen earlier this month. In the special qualification competition held between the five best Junior teams, the winner was Dream Edges from Kaarina. Due to its victory, the team qualified first for the Worlds. Team Finland 2 is Team Fintastic from Helsinki, because after Dream Edges, Fintastic had the season best scores. These two teams will compete in Neuchâtel, Switzerland on the 15th and 16th of March, 2019.

The Nationals is the most important competition of the season in which everything should go smoothly and correctly. It demands good arrangements before and during the competition. Every year, one Finnish club takes responsibility for the competition. This year it's the honor of club VG-62 from Naantali to organize. We asked the Head of OC, Elina Ylönen, a few questions before the event.

Are you ready to receive the teams, judges and the public?
Yes, it was fine to be allowed to arrange the National competition in Turku. We have a great ice rink, which is excellent for synchronized skating. It offers the teams and the public the best setting for the competition.

How many teams will attend the competition?
There are totally 28 teams competing: twelve Advanced Novices teams, twelve Junior teams and four Senior teams. The amount of the skaters is 663. There are 63 coaches and 148 others persons for the team staff. Both days on Saturday and on Sunday, we also have 120 volunteers working in different tasks.

When did you start to prepare for the competition?
The very first arrangement was to get the permission to arrange the competition from the Finnish Figure Skating Association. At the same time, we already reserved the ice rink. Actually, we started the hard work last May. We have a good team, which have regular meetings, especially during the last weeks. We have shared the tasks and every section had a team leader. Working together has been fun and everyone has done a good job. I can say that we are well within the schedule and almost ready. We wait for the competition eagerly.

How many spectators are you waiting to come to the rink?
On Monday, we had sold 1300 tickets for the Saturday and 1400 tickets for the Sunday. We are also selling the tickets during the whole competition and we hope that many spectators will attend and cheer the teams to make their best.

What do you hope for the competition?
We wish success and clean performances to all the teams. We hope that we can arrange an excellent and enjoyable event for both the teams and the public.

Juniors and Seniors will skate their short programs on Saturday and free programs on Sunday. Novices will compete with their free program on Saturday. Twelve out of eighteen Advanced Novice teams were qualified for the Nationals in two competitions held in November and December last year.