Timaru Herald Article 17/7/10

On track for new skating rink
By STU PIDDINGTON - The Timaru Herald

FREEZING FUN: Inline skating has been revived in South Canterbury and the Caroline Bay rink is set to be replaced. But even cold winter nights have not kept keen skaters away.

The South Canterbury Roller Skating Club is almost halfway towards the $455,000 it needs to put down a new track at its Caroline Bay headquarters.

The club has been revitalised over the past two years with an active committee, a speedskating team that has produced two age-group New Zealand representatives, and now boasts more than 120 members.

The dramatic change came two years ago after 21-year-old former world champion, Nicole Begg, offered free lessons at the almost forgotten track.

Since then new life has been breathed into the facility and the revival is almost complete with up to a 100 casual users skating on sunny Sunday afternoons, with Friday night club skating and speed training in-between.

Stage one of the project is to demolish the old 166-metre, cracked and outdated track and lay a new international-sized, 200m bitumen banked track.

The new track will cost just under $330,000 while the balance of the money will be used to move the club rooms and brick wall at the western end to make way for the extension of the track.

The club has raised $205,000 so far.

The major donors are the Community Trust of Mid and South Canterbury ($100,000), the Timaru District Council ($50,000) and gaming machine trust Pub Charities($20,000).

The club has reserves of $27,000 which are being put towards the project while Mt Harper Ice Rink trustees has given $8000.

Club spokesperson Mark Lowen is delighted by the progress so far and hopes the track will be laid before next winter.

He said a new track was essential because cracks in the surface have made the track dangerous and were getting bigger as water got into them and froze.

"It's beyond fixing and the numbers we have attending both competitive and recreational skating mean it will be a well-used facility in both summer and winter."

Mr Lowen said that while the revival started with 21-year-old Begg there was now a solid base of parents to take the sport forward.

He was delighted with the support the club had received but was keen to hear from anyone else interested in helping.

The club has two additional stages planned: resurface the rink with the coatings that they use at the world championships, at a cost of $100,000 to $120,000, and build new clubrooms.

Tomorrow the club will hold its first championships in more than a decade with more than 50 skaters expected to compete indoors at the SBS Events Centre.

Next Sunday there will an open day at the Caroline Bay rink from 2pm with Begg showing her skills while on a break from racing.

Update

Summer seems to have finally arrived and my time in Europe is soon coming to an end. My next event is the Gigathlon on the 10th - 11th July which is in Thun, Switzerland. It's not a traditional skating event but a multi sport even consisting of running, road cycling, mountain biking, swimming and of course skating. I will be competing in a team of five and will just be doing the two skating legs.

Last weekend I didn't race anywhere, the only real big event on was the Le Mans 24 hour race in France. I did get in two good days of training on my skates though. The Germans have their national championships on this weekend so skaters from various clubs around the country made a trip to test out the track beforehand, so there were plenty of people around to skate with. The German National Championships is not open to overseas skaters so I will just be spectating.

After the Gigathlon I will be heading back home to Timaru, New Zealand. I'm really looking forward to seeing my partner, mum, bike and everyone at the club and I hear there are plenty of newbie speed skaters. I will be home for about a month and then head to Haining, China for the skate festival and marathon. Haining will become my training base in preparation for the World Championships.

WIC Biel

Last Sunday was the World Inline Cup in Biel and also the first stage of the Swiss Inline Cup. Switzerland used to be the hub for skating marathons with races on nearly every week for about a 3 month period. Races were held around city streets, beautiful lakes and through great valleys. There were thousands of participants, big crowds, top teams, cow bells and of course a party to finish. Unfortunately Biel didn't have the same atmosphere this year.

The course from previous years which ran through the city streets was changed and we were racing outside of the city in a semi industrial area. No more racing through the shopping district and people cheering you on from cafes and bars. The weather didn't help either it was around 10 degrees, the wind was chilly and there were a few showers for the earlier races.

The original course was changed before the speed men and women raced because it was deemed as being too dangerous. Below is the map. The green area was a motorway over bridge. It wasn't long, but the climb was pretty sharp. So the red section was the main issue, coming down off the bridge and turning 90 degrees left on a one lane road. So we ended up racing around the yellow rectangle which was no more than 1km a lap and fully flat.


The men and women were racing at the same time which was a bit messy around such a small circuit. I was looking forward to a harder race having to go over the bridge twice every lap, I thought that may help break the field up. Unfortunately all it takes is for one person to do something silly on a corner like that and it can bring a group of people tumbling down, so the right decision was probably made. Early on I tried quite a few attacks but was pounced on pretty rapidly. Nathalie, the Alessi team and the Ferarra team tried a couple of times and Tina had a go but no one was ever fully committed to try end the race in a breakaway. Nothing ever got to the stage where it looked serious. After about half way I decided to stop attacking. I thought if somehow I did get away with the men constantly lapping us it would be easy for the women to hop on the back. There were only one or two attempts after that.

Photos - Stephan Keel www.skate4fun.ch

After half way the race slowed right down and looked like we were in for another pack sprint finish. The last corner coming into the finish straight was a little tricky because there was a traffic island on the exit so you couldn't drift wide and then a straight run of about 400 meters to the finish. I could see teams were going to block on the final corner but there wasn't much I could do about it because the lead out started pretty early.

Nathalie and Sabine got to the front with just under one lap to go. Once they moved everyone started scrambling so I had to use a bit of energy to regain a good position. Nathalie wound the pace up with Sabine behind her and Giovanna and the Alessi team lined up behind them. I was behind the last Alessi skater and it was either Tamara or Tina behind me. Nathalie moved over just before the last corner and let Sabine go with Giovanna on her wheel. The rest of the skaters stopped at the corner so I didn't get a clean run though. By the time I got past the skaters and out of the corner Sabine and Giovanna had a bit of a gap. I caught them down the straight and tried to pass on the left but I had already used my burst to catch them and the road was narrowing. I was getting closer to the barriers, the road ahead wasn't getting any wider and my legs weren't going to move any quicker so I slotted back in behind Giovanna. Sabine won, Giovanna 2nd and myself 3rd. Full results available at datasport, click here to view.

Photo - Ferrara Inline

Even though there were plenty of break away attempts in the mens race none of them were able to stay away. One of the Alessi skaters still had a reasonable gap with about 3 or 4 laps to go but he was reeled in. Scott done a big lead out for the Powerslide team but Nayib was able to get past the whole team going into the final corner and went on to win, with a gap back to second place getter Yann.

PatinCarrera Interview in English

NICOLE BEGG

The multiple champion from New Zealand is one of the great figures of world skating at only 23 years of age.
Wearing the new colours of X-Tech she spoke exclusively with us and told us about her exiting life on wheels.

1.What is your analysis of the first half of the 2010 season?
I think my performance has been pretty good in recent months. I'm skating alone which isn't always going to be easy. My strength isn't really long straight line sprints and we have had quite a few of those this season. There aren't a lot of skaters racing full time on the circuit this year so a lot of the races have been slow and boring and that's not really my style of racing. I prefer harder, faster races with a lot more attacks.
Since there are few teams, Powerslide have been able to control the vast majority of races because many times they have been the only strong team present.

2. What has been your best race of the season so far?
Probably the WIC Incheon. It wasn't my best result but the finish was very close between Seul Lee, Cecilia and myself. As for atmosphere it would have to be Dijon. The TV was there along with a spectator friendly course and a large field in the women's event.

3. How was your off season?
During the preseason I didn't know exactly where I would be based during the year and what events I would be racing in so I didn't train specifically for marathons. I done a lot of cycling over the NZ summer and I was really busy with other ventures. Our family opening a shop in the main street of our city (Timaru, New Zealand), helping coach and promote our club and trying to get the funds we need to build a new track. Then we brought back the Tour of Timaru which also took up some of my time helping to get things organized for the event which hadn't been run in nearly a decade. It used to be a very popular skating event in New Zealand and we hope to bring it back to it's former glory over the next few years.

4. How is the life of Nicole Begg constantly traveling around the world?
It can at times be frustrating and stressful, is not always glamorous. Even during the off season when I'm not travelling as much I still seem to be busy. The last few weeks have been hard since Incheon I have had flights every week. Waiting around at airports is probably the most tedious part of traveling. I like to try and relax when I get home to New Zealand at the end of the season but I'm usually actually busier there than when I'm in Europe.

5. What is your favorite place in the World? And what is the worst, where do you dislike going?
There is no place like home, Timaru is my favorite place it's what I class as my home. It's difficult to think of the worst place. Some places I don't like just because I have had bad experiences it's not that they are bad places it's just I haven't had a good time there. For example at the moment I'm not in love with Spain because on the last trip there 3 of my 4 flights were delayed and my luggage didn't make it on board. Switzerland is a beautiful place but I also love Singapore. Singapore has great food, a million and one places to shop and some really nice cycle paths to skate on.

6. What's on your calendar in the coming weeks?
On Sunday I will be in Biel (Switzerland) for the 8th stage of the World Inline Cup. In early July I will be racing for a team in the Gigathlon then I will return home for a month. I will travel to China in August for Haining Skate Festival and train in Haining. Biel should be an interesting race, especially if it rains.

7. What are your goals for the World Championships in Guarne?. What do you think about the height of the town and how will you adapt to 2100m above sea level?
I think it will really hard, I've never competed at a similar altitude. But my goals do not change, of course I want to win a World Title in Guarne. I have 11 Senior world medals so far and I want to keep adding to them.
Good preparation for me would be going into the champs with a season behind me that's injury free. The last two years I've had bad injuries during the season, so to have no interruptions in my training this year would be nice. I think I will have to go to Colombia earlier than I normally would to adapt to the altitude.

8. What do you think the World Championships in Guarne will be like? And who will be your personal rivals on the track?
Colombia have a passion for skating so no doubt there will surely be an enthusiastic crowd. Hyo Sook Woo and the rest of the Korean team are always going to be hard to beat. Of course the Colombians will be strong at home and China may be a surprise if they bring their best athletes. Chinese Taipei really performed last year and Italy had a strong team in 2009 as well. The German women are strong on the road and there are always others to watch out for. I think a lot will depend on how everyone prepares and adapts to the altitude.

9. Will we see Nicole Begg on ice skates soon?
I really don't know at this point. I haven't fully analyzed the possibility of switching to ice or racing seriously on the bike. It would have been an easy question to answer if inline speed skating had made it as an Olympic sport.

10. For many years you were the image of Bont, it was a big surprise when you joined with X-Tech. What is your feeling after the first few months?
Yes, it was a surprise for a lot of people. I'm very grateful to Bont because they supported me for a long time but it was really exciting for me to start a new adventure with X-Tech. I love the new X-Tech products. They worked hard in the off season experimenting and perfecting their products to provide first class equipment and have achieved key partners like IS frames and MPC wheels.

11. What would you change in our sport to make it more professional? What would you like to see change in skating?
I think everyone needs to push to be more professional, athletes, organizers, promoters, federations absolutely everyone. It was great to see TV coverage in Dijon, we need more of this even if it's only on a local channel we need to start somewhere. Skating still lacks a press presence, if everyone pushed for a little publicity in their area we could start being noticed.
I think Asia is the next place where skating will have it's big boom. When it takes off we need to start fresh with a new atmosphere, professional people involved and new ideas.


By Guido Ferraiuolo: PatinCarrera.com Group

3rd Biel

Just arrived home from Biel. I finished 3rd, full results from all categories available at Data Sport click here to view them. Report to come.

PatinCarrera Interview

PatinCarrera.com has an interview online. It's in Spanish, but I will translate it after the race this weekend and put the English version on my blog. Click here to view the Spanish version.