Nelson skaters roll on at nationals
Having honed their skills on an industrial park road, Nelson’s speed skaters translated hard graft into medals at the New Zealand road and flat track championships, held in Palmerston North at New Year.
Seventeen local skaters competed at the Memorial Park and Arena 4 venues over five days. Coach Alan Bartlett said the overall haul of 48 medals across both events was the club’s best ever return, and followed an impressive 59-medal haul at October’s Southern Indoor Championships at Timaru.
While South Canterbury once again dominated both events, he said clubs like Nelson were beginning to close the gap.
Overall, the Nelson skaters recorded 14 personal bests amongst their nine gold, five silver and seven bronze medals at the two-day road nationals on January 1-2.
Juvenile skater Mikaela MacDonald and Masters Mens competitor Garth Jameson were the standout performers, winning a combined seven golds and setting five national records between them.
Jameson set a new mark in the 200m time trial and 1000m race to go with his 500m and 5000m titles, while 11-year-old MacDonald set records and claimed gold in the 500m, 1000m and 3000m events.
‘‘Mikaela is an exceptional skater and we’ve got high hopes for her in the future,’’ Bartlett said.
Junior racer Holly Ward and juvenile girl Emily Olthof also took gold in their respective 200m time trial races.
In the subsequent flat track competition, nine personal bests featured amongst Nelson’s eight gold, 13 silver and six bronze medals.
Once again, MacDonald dominated the juvenile class with wins in the 300m, 400m, 800m and 1500m events.
Tiara Richards set a PB in her 300m time trial gold medal win, joining Ward (1500m) and Intermediate Mens’ racer Luke Denton (1500m) as Nelson winners.
Ward’s win in the 800m was one of the individual highlights from the competition, fighting back from fifth at the halfway stage to finish ahead of the favoured South Canterbury skaters.
Nelson’s success was underlined by 10 skaters being selected to represent New Zealand at the Oceania championships in Australia later this year.
The club is expecting another good return when it competes in the national bank track championships at Timaru next month.
The Nelson skaters currently train on a makeshift 430m circuit around Packham Crescent in an industrial area of Stoke.
‘‘It’s the old Kiwi attitude of doing the best with what you have – the trucks know we’re going to be here, so it works well for us,’’ Bartlett said.
However, he said securing a dedicated training track was a longterm goal for the club, to boost facilities as well as results.
‘‘What we’re looking for is a fivemetre [wide] track, which would be incredibly useful for cyclists as a criterion track. Road runners and wheelchair athletes would use it, recreational walkers could use it, because there’d be no traffic on it.’’