This past weekend saw the running of the 59th Duke Trophy in Brisbane, Australia - the first big competition for the southern hemisphere racing season. This competition is a State teams event, with no heats or finals but round robin style racing in all divisions, with skaters accumulating points for their respective teams.
New South Wales ran out winners from Queensland and Victoria.
A history of the Duke Trophy can be found by clicking here.
Attached is the link to Veterans protocol which has been taken directly from the full protocol of the event, which consisted of 153 races.
Each veteran skated in 11 individual races, with the Queensland and Victorian teams contesting 2 x 3000m relays over the two days.
Veteran skater Michael Attwood was awarded the Colin Coates Spirit of the Duke Trophy award. I have no doubt that Mike was awarded this due to the fact that he was always out the front of the pack hunting for the win and, having raced him in 7 of my 11 races, I can attest to him being a worthy recipient of this award. Well done Mike!
I have attached links to videos from the morning session of day 1. Hopefully by the end of the week, I will have loaded all the races onto the WMST Youtube site.
Race 1 Veteran 1500m
Race 2 Veteran 1500m
Race 13 Veteran 500m
Race 14 Veteran 500m
Race 15 Veteran 500m
Race 28 Veteran 1000m
Race 29 Veteran 1000m
The turn out of 11 veteran skaters for the twelve available spots was fantastic. Dale Blunden from New South Wales has been speed skating for six weeks and decided to fill a vacant spot in the team as he was traveling to the event to allow his son to compete.
Melissa Kah from Victoria stepped up and competed against the men with some positive results. I am expecting to see Mel and her husband Danny (former Australian Olympian) competing at the nationals in Sydney, in October.
Andrea Winzor, also from Victoria, competed in the senior woman's division as all the veteran positions were filled. Hopefully we can create enough interest for a veterans woman's division at the nationals this year.
The veterans/masters scene in Australia is getting stronger with many more skaters not being able to skate due to positions having been filled, as only 4 skaters from each state can compete in each division. With these numbers, it is likely that we could have up to 16 or more skaters for the Nationals in Sydney. Here's to hoping!
Frank
Monday, July 28, 2008
Monday, July 21, 2008
Quiet Times
Well, it has been a little quiet on the masters front with the northern hemisphere just about to come out of summer hiatus and with very limited masters competitions down under.
The first event of the NH season will kick off on the 1st of August with the Trophée Léon Quaglia in Chamonix.
The SH season is about to hot up in Australia with the Duke Trophy to be held in Brisbane this coming weekend (25th & 26th). This event is a teams event with all divisions competing in a round robin style format. This lends itself to a lot of racing over the two days and with three states competing, hopefully all twelve masters positions will be filled.
The Queensland Masters contigent will be Herbie Labiche, Frank Anderson, Sean Bennett and Glen Rosenburg (back on the ice after his quadricep gash).
The Victorian Masters will be Ken Stewart, Michael Attwood, Melissa Kah and one other (maybe Wayne Dite).
With each state only being able to fill four masters spots, a couple of masters will compete in the senior ladies group for Victoria.
As yet, I am unaware of which New South Wales masters will be making the trek to Brisbane.
I skated in Melbourne the last two weekends and the Olympic Southern Flyers masters group is by far the strongest in numbers in the country, with about ten masters taking to the ice.
I would like to thank all OSF members for welcoming me in and allowing me to train with the group - although they all think I was spying for Queensland (of course I was!). Gordon Church runs a well structured training environment and the club appears to be very well supported.
My trip to Melbourne also coincided with the return to the ice of two time Olympian Richard Goerlitz (38) who is considering a return to some competitive skating. Richard is the current Australian long track national record holder in the 500m, 1000m and 1500m distances.
On another note, although I received some positive feedback about a Masters Sprint Event during the week preceeding the Australian Open (September), there was not enough committment to warrant the organisation of this event. The positive though, is that it looks like there will be a larger masters/veterans field in this years nationals with Jim Lynch and Danny Kah giving their tentative interest in competing again, and with a little more persusion, hopefully I can sell the participation factor for some of those Victorian masters to make the trek to Sydney in October along with having a ladies veteran division.
I have updated my links list with my WMST YouTube page that has some old footage from the 1992 and 1994 Winter Olympics and some other videos as well.
I am also hoping to start a 2008/2009 times list commencing from the 1st of July (to be published after Trophée Léon Quaglia).
I am keen to have more masters send me their profiles and times, as many readers have provided positive feedback and interest in this area.
I have been receiving some very positive feedback about the blog and although I have been busy, I am hoping that this season, I can post some interesting articles and results. Please feel free to email me at thenewbordersecurity@aapt.net.au if you have anything of interest in the masters short track arena that you would like others to know.
Frank
The first event of the NH season will kick off on the 1st of August with the Trophée Léon Quaglia in Chamonix.
The SH season is about to hot up in Australia with the Duke Trophy to be held in Brisbane this coming weekend (25th & 26th). This event is a teams event with all divisions competing in a round robin style format. This lends itself to a lot of racing over the two days and with three states competing, hopefully all twelve masters positions will be filled.
The Queensland Masters contigent will be Herbie Labiche, Frank Anderson, Sean Bennett and Glen Rosenburg (back on the ice after his quadricep gash).
The Victorian Masters will be Ken Stewart, Michael Attwood, Melissa Kah and one other (maybe Wayne Dite).
With each state only being able to fill four masters spots, a couple of masters will compete in the senior ladies group for Victoria.
As yet, I am unaware of which New South Wales masters will be making the trek to Brisbane.
I skated in Melbourne the last two weekends and the Olympic Southern Flyers masters group is by far the strongest in numbers in the country, with about ten masters taking to the ice.
I would like to thank all OSF members for welcoming me in and allowing me to train with the group - although they all think I was spying for Queensland (of course I was!). Gordon Church runs a well structured training environment and the club appears to be very well supported.
My trip to Melbourne also coincided with the return to the ice of two time Olympian Richard Goerlitz (38) who is considering a return to some competitive skating. Richard is the current Australian long track national record holder in the 500m, 1000m and 1500m distances.
On another note, although I received some positive feedback about a Masters Sprint Event during the week preceeding the Australian Open (September), there was not enough committment to warrant the organisation of this event. The positive though, is that it looks like there will be a larger masters/veterans field in this years nationals with Jim Lynch and Danny Kah giving their tentative interest in competing again, and with a little more persusion, hopefully I can sell the participation factor for some of those Victorian masters to make the trek to Sydney in October along with having a ladies veteran division.
I have updated my links list with my WMST YouTube page that has some old footage from the 1992 and 1994 Winter Olympics and some other videos as well.
I am also hoping to start a 2008/2009 times list commencing from the 1st of July (to be published after Trophée Léon Quaglia).
I am keen to have more masters send me their profiles and times, as many readers have provided positive feedback and interest in this area.
I have been receiving some very positive feedback about the blog and although I have been busy, I am hoping that this season, I can post some interesting articles and results. Please feel free to email me at thenewbordersecurity@aapt.net.au if you have anything of interest in the masters short track arena that you would like others to know.
Frank
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