Any pavement suits Dunedin competitor
IF you see a speeding flash in a Dunedin car park, chances are it is speed skater Mark McCormick.
The 18yearold can be seen scorching across Dunedin pavements at speeds of up to 40kmh.
Being the fastest thing in Dunedin on eight wheels is serious business for McCormick who is training to qualify for his sport’s world championships, later this year.
He recently took a step towards that goal by winning the 42km marathon event at the Oceania Junior Speed Skating Championships at Timaru.
McCormack sped away from the pack and handed defeat to six Australian and five New Zealand opponents.
But training for his event did not involve McCormack practising at stateoftheart or custombuilt facilities.
Instead the teenager tuned up for his win by skating around the car parks at Bunnings Warehouse Car park and the Dunedin Ice Stadium.
Simply, if you give McCormick some clear pavement then he will get his training in.
Though he diversifies his preparation with some cycling, much of his training sessions are just as simple as the venues as he does them in.
‘‘I do a lot of cycling, but I just go and skate,’’ McCormick said.
‘‘An hour and ahalf is the usual. Sometimes I just go and skate for an hour. nonstop.’’
McCormick has some lofty goals in sight and is fully committed to achieving them.
The former Bayfield High School pupil is training full time with the hope of gaining selection for events on the world stage.
McCormack competed at the world inline speed skating championships in China as a member of the New Zealand team.
He finished 31st in the 20km final and 15th in the inline cup marathon.
Although as he was competing as part of a team those placings may not truly reflect his efforts at the tournament.
The junior world championships are in Holland in July and McCormick aims to be among the 24strong squad selected to compete.
‘‘Hopefully, I get selected with my results and go again,’’ he said
The skater is planning to head to Holland before the championships to compete in other feature events.
McCormick should be an even faster skater when he competes in Europe.
His training and racing leading into the Oceania Championships were hampered by a groin injury.
‘‘I was pretty unfortunate in that I injured my groin — my adductor [muscle] — two and ahalf weeks out from the champs.’’
‘‘So I couldn’t go sprint or do any fast training for two and ahalf weeks before. So I was quite slow and couldn’t go as fast as I could have.’’
Though it took the speed out of his legs, the skater pushed through with his superior stamina for victory in the mara thon event.
‘‘The longer and harder the race gets, the better I will go.’’
McCormick also finished second in the 5000m and 10,000m elimination races and had fourth placings in the 500m and 1000m events.