Keen racing expected at skating champs

Press, 13 July 1984, Page 23

Keen racing expected at skating champs

By

BOB SCHUMACHER

Because entries are down on recent years, the New Zealand outdoor ice racing

championships at Lake Middleton, Twizel, will be decided this week-end instead of over the usual four days.

If ice conditions are suitable, the national shorttrack (200 m track) titles will be decided tomorrow and the long-track (400 m track) titles on Sunday. Although the numbers competing will be small, there should be compensation from the closeness of the racing in the three men’s grades. Ans Kremer, of Westland, is the only senior woman competitor. But she has skated against the clock on many other occasions, and her attempts to lower her own national records always result in a 100 per cent effort from the powerful Dutch-born skater. Kremer returned to Europe earlier this year and successfully bettered her national 5000 m record overseas. Her time was 9min 6.865.

The senior men’s championships should develop into a two-way tussle between the country’s dominant skater for the last decade, Mark Atkin|on and

his youthful Mainland clubmate, Tony Smith. Atkinson has held the edge previously but Smith has bridged the gap between them and was most unfortunate last winter when the New Zealand 400 m track championship was abandoned with the programme only half completed. At that point, Smith was in line for the aggregate championship. He had won the 500 m from Tim McDonald and Atkinson,

and was second over 5000 m to McDonald, with Atkinson again third. Rough ice, then the lack of it, prevented the other two races from being held.

Earlier in the 1983 season, Atkinson won the New Zealand 111 m track aggregate championship in Auckland and retained his outdoor 200 m track aggregate title at Twizel. Smith was third in the aggregate at Auckland and runner-up at Twizel.

Atkinson’s build-up this winter has been affected by a knee injury which has bothered him for the last two months, but the experienced New’ Zealand representative said that he had been bike training in company with Smith, and was nearing peak fitness. Atkinson had no doubts as to whom was the superior bike rider. Smith, who represented Canterbury at the last New Zealand track cycling championships, is a very accomplished cyclist and he might be better prepared physically than Atkinson.

4/Ikinson’s sharp speed at

the start and skilled cornering will help him on the ice, and the tip of the blade might all be that separates the pair at the finish of some races. Keith Van Vianen, who was third in the New Zealand outdoor 200 m aggregate championship last year, is unlikely to upset the favoured two unless one of them should fall. He is eligible for the veteran’s championship next season and is keeping in shape for that grade. Adam Van Vianen is the likely winner of the two intermediate men’s championships, although Dean Miller, wbo showed promise last winter when he first appeared on the scene, has continued his improvement and should be a worthy challenger. Miller, still a junior, might get his reward in the junior men’s grade. This section should provide some of the most exciting racing with Nigel Van Vianen having impressed in training, and the Sinclair brothers, Paul and Mark, both having made steady progress in their preparation for the championships. Top honours will go to the skater who adopts tbe best ((g’tics.