A roller skater of seven years, the 18-year-old Kirkpatrick defeated five other skaters in the 12-to-18 age group of the Singles Star 3 event at Stardust Skate Center.

"I've been skating longer than everybody I skated against," said Kirkpatrick, of Columbia, S.C. "It kind of takes the reward away from it."

Thirty-five participants from Georgia, South Carolina and Tennessee entered the artistic roller skating event.

Event director Kathy Nave said there would've been more participants but Augusta wasn't convenient for some skaters.

"There would've been more people, but some of the Atlanta people choose not to come," she said. "They don't mind us driving up to see them. But they sure don't like to drive up to see us."

Skaters ranging from ages 6-to-47 were rated by a panel of three judges on the difficulty and the technical aspect of their routines and the choreography.

Becky Rozell, of Greenville, S.C., had no problem with the judges.

Rozell, 25, skated a solid two-minute routine in the 19-and-over portion of the Singles Star 2 competition and easily won the gold medal. Of course, she was the only one entered in that age group.

"Even though you're the only one, you still want to do the best you can," Rozell said. "I know I did my best."

Rozell went with a patriotic theme by wearing a red, white and blue outfit. Her routine was set to Lee Greenwood's "God Bless the USA." Saturday was the second time she'd used the routine.

"Since (July 4) just passed, I decided to use it again," Rozell said. "I just wanted to remind people, not of the bad things, but of the good things."

Raymond Wingrove remembered the good things about roller skating a few years ago and decided to pick up the sport again. Wingrove, a 42-year-old Augustan, defeated Brian Miekle for the gold medal in the Singles Star 6 Men's event.

"I just can't stay away from it," said Wingrove, who's been roller skating off-and-on since 1978. "It's a good sport. It keeps you in shape."

Wingrove said he was glad that roller skating was part of the Georgia Games, because it gives the sport much-needed exposure.

"It shows people on the outside that we have roller skating here," he said. "People need to know more about roller skating and I think this helps out a lot."

Reach Chris Gay at (706) 868-1222, Ext. 114.