Biography
Marika is arguably one of Wales' most successful skaters. She began skating at the age of six after a trip to her local Deeside rink as a birthday treat and started ice skating lessons shortly afterwards. At the age of twelve she began skating with a new partner - Justin Lanning from Slough, which meant dividing their time and traveling between the two rinks. After winning the British Ice Dance Championships in 1993, becoming the youngest ever winners at 15 and 19. When T & D decided not to compete at the World Championships in 1994, Humphreys & Lanning took their place. Unfortunately, they then split up and Marika decided to take a year out of competition during which time she founded the Deeside Precision Skating Team. In 1996 Marika re-started competitive skating with Philip Askew. Marika now has a new partner called Vitaly Barnanov from the Ukraine and they are coached by Betty Calloway. They were teamed together when they both took part in the Hot Ice show in Blackpool over the summer of 1998.
Training for competition and performing in the show 6 days a week was incredibly demanding and they were pleased to attain the Bronze medal position at the British Championships that year.
In 1999 Marika & Vitaliy were unable to compete in the British Championships due to injury sustained in a car accident. The couple were however married in March that year.
In 2000 they returned to the competitive scene, successfully claiming the British title for the first time together.
In preparation for the Olympic year, Marika & Vitaliy travelled to America for training with Natalia Dubova. "Our time spent in America allowed us to do two things, one was to focus solely & completely on training for a whole month, the other was to train alongside Israeli Champions Galit Chait and Sergei Saknanovski. Both of these factors helped us get straight into the right frame for the season."