Ice racers to leave on a mission

Press, 10 February 1989, Page 26

Ice racers to leave on a mission

By

BOB SCHUMACHER

Two of New Zealand’s swiftest speed skaters, Mike McMillen, of Christchurch, and Andrew Nicholson, of Auckland, leave in a fortnight for Vancouver, the first stop on an overseas trip which will c'ulminate in their competing in the world championship in England. They are under no illusions as to the difficulty of the mission facing them, but, impressive times over 3000 m have heartened the ice racers, although they will need to sharpen their sprints over the shorter distances of 500 m and 1000 m. Their time trials have been deemed satisfactory enough, however, by officials of the Ice Racing Federation of New Zealand who will recognise the pair as national representatives, a requisite for them to be able to start in the world championship. McMillen, aged 24, will be competing at his second world championship, having finished equal thirtieth in St Louis last year, while Nicholson, aged 18, a

brother of New Zealand’s best-performed skater at a world competition, Chris, will be attending for a third time. The world short-track championships on a 111 m track will be at Solihull in Birmingham from April 7 to 9 and the New Zealand pair are determined to be at peak for that meeting. While in Vancouver, McMillen and Nicholson will concentrate basically on training, although they may have the chance to race in the British Columbia provincial championships. “Then we will be. off to Holland to contest the Dutch open championships on April 3. This is a popular meeting for skaters as it is open to anyone and usually draws big fields and top skaters,” McMillan said. The Dutch open serves as an ideal tune-up for. the world cbampionship four days later. Nicholson has been training in Christchurch with McMillen since November, and with the

accomplished Chris Nicholson also attending some of the training runs, the practices have been positive and purposeful, according to McMillen who spent many lonely hours on the ice by himself when preparing for the 1988 World Cup meetings and world championship in the United States. McMillen said he felt confident he could better his thirtieth placing of last year — “my racing and fitness have both improved” — and he and Nicholson recently recorded 3000 m times at The Big Mpple which would have ranked them in the top- eight from last year. Although the world championship is foremost in the minds of McMillen and Nicholson, they have an equally important longterm goal. It was recently announced that shorttrack . skating has been approved- as part of the 1992 Winter Olympics programme — they would dearly love to be in France as New Zealand’s first ice racers.