Ice-skater breaks N.I. record at champs

Press, 29 July 1976, Page 21

Ice-skater breaks N.I. record at champs

By

BOB SCHUMACHER

Ans Kremer set the only national record at the New Zealand long-track ice skating championships which finished at Lake Ida on Tuesday.

The strongly-built Dutch-born skater made full use of the ideal ice conditions to cover the 500 m in 53.1 sec and clip o.2sec off the old record.

Weather and ice conditions throughout the two-day national events were almost perfect, but the ice thawed yesterday afternoon and several likely record attempts became impossible. Miss Kremer had reason to light-heartedly chide the male; skaters. She recorded the fastest; 1500 m time, although she skated [ when conditions were ideal.

Although the long sweeping strides and the elegant style of Miss Kremer took her to victory in all events and by decisive margins, the 15-year-old Canterbury skater, Debbie Cade, skated well. She covered the 500 m in a swift 56.8 sec and showed courage in completing the 3000 m after falling twice and getting well soaked.

The senior men's events provided a different result in the four races. Michael Day was the swiftest over 500 m; the durable Canterbury veteran. Jan Havenaar, decided that the 1500 m was the race he had to win and he fulfilled his ambition; Ken Howie (Invercargill) lasted the 5000 m better than his opponents; and the exhausting 10.000 m went to the talented Canterbury intermediate, John Adams. Unfortunately for senior skaters, the 10,000 m was the final event and the lake, by yesterday afternoon, was covered by surface water. The water presented

no problems, but underneath the ice was rutted.

Instead of being able to use the edges of the blades and glide through the ice, the competitors had to push hard all the way. Adams, who monopolised the intermediate short-track and long-track championships, showed his powers of speed and stamina in winning the extreme distance (10,000 m He was the last skater to compete and was forced to race the distance alone. Earlier. Howie had fought determinedly to cover the 25 circuits of the 400 m track in a little less than 25inin. It was the first time that the 19-year-old Invercargill skater had raced the distance. Some of his sharp sprints in the varix part of the event caused officials to think that he would “blow.”' but he stuck assiduously to his 1 task.

Adams planned a schedule to finish about one minute inside Howie’s time. His progress was as planned and he lapped con sistently around 58sec, Twice, when the fickle wind swept lhe lake on isolated occasions, he took 60sec to circuit, but he finished strongly in the creditable time of 23min 56.95ec.

Auckland skaters dominated the junior events and the slightly-built Ross Jensen emulated his performance at the! short-track titles when he won all three long-track events. Jensen was hard pressed by his team-mate. Michael Orbell. over the 500 m and 1000 m dis-i tances, but his fluent and smooth • skating left him an easy winner: over 1500 m. The diminutive Canterbury competitor. lan Riley, j gave a sterling performance over' 1500 m. He had to skate alone andi an early tumble cost him vital

(seconds. But he responded to the purgings of the spectators and maintained a solid speed to take the third placing. Abbreviations used in the results are: (A.). Auckland; (C.l. Canterbury; (11. Invercargill; (W.i. Westland. Men ■ Senior.—soom: M. Dax (C.L |sl.ssec, 1; K. Howie (I.), 51.8 and IJ. 11. Havenaar rC.i, 51.8 equal 2. 1500 m: Havenaar, 2:53.2. J; Howie. 2.54.3, 2; Day, 3:00.7. 3 5000 m: Howie, 9:50.7. 1: Havenaar, 10:15.7. 2; Day, 10:53.4, 3. 10,000 m: J. Adams (C.), 23:56.9. 1; Howie, 24:51.0, 2; Havenaar. 26:47.5. 3 Intermediate.—soom: Adams. 47 7. 1; I. Chaney (C.l. 54.7. 2 1500 m: Adams. 2:52.3, 1; Chancx, 3:25.2 2.3000 m: Adams. 5:28.2. 1; Chaney. 6:31.7 25000 m: Adams. 11:37.7. 1; Chaney. 15 58 6. 2.

Junior.—soom: R Jensen <A.I. 55.04 1; M Orbell < A.). 55 5. 2; T. Galvin <C.). 58.5. 3. 1000 m: Jensen. 2:0.9 1; Orbelj. 2:3.0. 2; S. Sturgess <A.j. 2:12.9, 3. 1500 m: Jensen, 3:11.4, r Orbell. 3:17.7, 2; I Riley (C.l. 3:30.0. 3. Women Senior.—soom: Miss A. Kremer (W.i. 53.1. (N.Z. record). 1. Miss D. Cade (C.) 56.8 2; Miss M. Madden (C.l, 1:0.9. 3. 1000 m: Miss Kremer, 1:59.9. 1; Miss Cade. 2:8.8, 21500 m: Miss Kremer, 2:49.9. 1; Miss Cade. 3:15.2. 2: Miss Madden. 4:1.1. 3 3000 m: Miss K cmer. 7:23.3 1; Miss Cade. 8:7.7. 2 Open sprint 160 m dash. —Men; Adams. 165. 1; K. Maxwell <l.l, 16 7. 2; Havenaar. 17.4, 3: Day. 17.5. 4; Howie. 17.6 5 Women: Miss Kremer. 18.8. 1: Miss K Thomson <Li. 19.6. 2. Relay Senior 4 x 400 m—Centaurus (J. Den Exeter. P Silcock, Have naar, Adams). 3:21.2, 1.