Track nationals began on a lesiurely thursday afternoon with the 300m time trials in all divisions. While watching the warmups and time trials, one cannot but remark that pink seems to be the new black. Pink labeda icons seemed to be the order of the day with most people coming to the conclusion that they were a good wheel for this track. The time trials went by with great speed with some very fast times being posted.
James Nicholson flies around the track at warp 8.57. Earlier, in the junior boys 300m time trial, Daniel Greig, Paul Garriga and James Evans once again stole a victorian 1-2-3. Brooke Lochland won her time trial by almost two seconds with her older sister, Lauren Lochland coming in second mere hundredths of a second in front of western Australia's Anna Tilley. As the speeds increased, grip became harder and harder to come by. The intermediate men's division saw a few brown-underpants-moments when the wheels squeaked against the floorboards, as did the advanced men. The seniors saw indoor hard-hitter Andy Finster go down hard after his wheels decided that their affinity for the air had overcome their affinity for the ground. Joshua Lose, after recording a lightning quick first lap, also found himself overbalancing and falling resulting in the second slowest time of the day to be recorded.
Mick and Gaino prepare for the senior men's 5000m relay. The victorian team was seen as a great threat as they were all fitted out with matching pink wheels and blue skinsuits (even if Gaino had to wear Gethyn's). After our junior boys and junior girls comprehensively opened a can of whoop-ass on the other states, our senior men were set to do the same.
After their comprehensive victory in the junior girls relay, Brooke, Georgia and Claire felt compelled to pay tribute to Lleyton Hewitt. By the end of their 3000m relay, they had lapped the other team twice.
The senior mens relay was an exciting and hair-raising affair. Right from the start the pace was up there at warp 9 (as Mick would say it) and initially all three teams were neck-and-neck. Eventually, victoria made a bit of a break and shaked off queensland. They succeeded intermittently to shake off western Australia but the very best from the west wouldn't let the vics get the best of them and always managed to get themselves back into the challenge. About halfway through the race, there was some confusion over a tag and some interference and before anyone could say "what the...?", the victorians were disqualified. They, however, continued to skate in the hope that there had been a mistake, but three corners, two squeaks and a hole in a borrowed skinsuit later, Mark Gainsmith was on the ground and victoria was down and out for the count giving western Australia an easy victory over queensland.
Mark Gainsmith goes to tag Michael Byrne, Thomas Baird goes to tag Joshua Lose... all at maximum warp. For a full list of track results, click here.
Day two of track nationals began at an even more ungodly hour of the morning than on the third day of road. Doors opened at 6:30am! Which meant that most of us had to get up to have breakfast at a time which many of us would have considered "last night".
The reason - the today show. Michael Byrne made the insightful remark that if we had offered free breakfast and a massage (but no opportunity to appear on TV), we would have only gotten half the people that we did. In fact, many people who hadn't raced track, or all week for that matter, came out of the woodwork for their fifteen minutes of fame.
Sporadically throughout the morning, our program was interrupted by "crossing over live" and we all had to do all sorts of silly things, like pretend to skate in a race while the weather guy read the weather... go figure. At the end of the day though, this was a great shot in the arm for a sport which has traditionally had alot of trouble generating any media interest.
To ensure that we did the prescribed distances - and not a millimeter more, we were sure to measure up the track. We also scissor-mopped the track a number of times throughout the day to try and maintain maximum grip on what had so far proven to be quite a slippery floor.
The uncertainty with the program, particularly early in the morning while the TV crew were making us jump through hoops, led to there being alot of latent energy in the crowd. The start of many races were delayed precipitating ad-hoc wrestling matches to spontaneously begin trackside. Here we see Brooke Lochland fighting above her... er... weight and getting a grip on Anna Tilley.
Corey Stevens (QLD) leads the pack in the advanced men 1000m final..We did finally get under way with 1000m heats (and for some, semis as well). Most of the results were as expected, although that didn't make the racing any less exciting. Despite the constitution of the finals being decided on places rather than times, the pace was still generally of a fast nature (guess they don't call it speed skating for nothing).
The 3000m race threw in a few surprises. A certain victorian skater who has a totally unjustified reputation for being a bad driver, drove the pace hard right from the start with an early break which began about 10cm from the starting line. Alas, after gaining a substatial lead he was caught, passed and spat out the back to deal with the lactic acid monster on his own. Meanwhile, Gethyn Sharp-Bucknall overcame both Corey Stevens and Robbie Cook to take the title in the advanced men after playing third (and occasionally second) fiddle to those two skaters. Liam Garriga also put in a gutsy performance to come out on top at the end of his 3000m race in the juvenile boys division.
After all that jazz, the racing resumed with two-person 16-lap relays which turned out to be as much a test of speed as of maneuverability. The heats passed by with very little drama, however the finals were another story entirely. There was one disqualification and a relegation in the senior men's final which left one of the victorian teams on the sidelines wondering what went wrong. The end result - Mick and Gaino 1st, Gethyn and Damo 2nd, Brad and Tom 3rd. The masters also put on a brave performance with victoria taking 2nd and 3rd. Also noteworthy was victorian masters lady Renee Starr who overcame the hitherto invincible Miriam Houbolt from queensland to grab the gold medal in that division.
Mark "Gaino" Gainsmith at full extension following a push-tag to Michael "Mick" Byrne.
The third day of track nationals was a comparative sleep in with the start being at 9am.
The lure of exciting nationals racing was just too much to keep Tessa Byrne away from spectating. The day started off with the 500m heats for all divisions. Due to the marathon starting tomorrow, many people didn't front up for the heats which meant that the first round of 500m were slightly easier than we expected. So much so that even I managed to get through my heat into a semi final. Once in the semi, I executed my race plan which was to go hard from the start and hope that the lactic acid monster didn't catch me before I reached the finish line. Unfortunately, the lactic acid monster had been in training and was skating much faster than I was used to. After skating 300m at break neck (no, really!) speed in the lead of my 500m semi final, I locked harder than I have ever locked before... and was subsequently passed and was unable to make it to the final.
During one of the breaks in skating we heard an almighty thud. Everyone looked up to find Danny Finster's feet pointed in the air behind a chair with two broken back legs. Hmm... I guess there's nothing quite like a bit of comic relief to lighten up the mood at nationals.
The 500m final of the senior men was an exciting affair with three (count them) breaks off the line before they finally got a clean start. Josh Lose made good of the start and broke away in a fashion that would not be caught before the end of the race. However, Andy Finster, who was fourth into the first corner, found his feet and charged up the field to take second place. The advanced mens 500m was made interesting by a fall which brought down both Corey Stevens and Robbie Cook leaving the race open to Nihal Kehoe to come through for second and Gethyn Sharp-Bucknall to take the title.
The open races followed in the latter part of the progam with big fields all coming out to do the long distance. The combination of different divisions left everyone guessing as to who would try and do what which made for some exciting racing. The open mens division was especially gruelling as it was 10,000m - 100 laps, twice the distance of the next longest race. The distance certainly took its toll on the skaters with only 8 finishing from a starting field of 21. The western Australians - Lose, Baird and Jenkins put in a great team effort to secure a breakaway and a subsequent 1-2-3 for western Australia.
The final events were the mixed relays. Queensland dominated the masters relay with Andrew Tieken and Miriam Houbolt easily taking the win from the victorians. Elsewhere, however, was a different story with Paul McAlister and Brooke Lochland taking out the senior mixed relay. With only a few laps to go, the pace began to slow with the effects of six days' racing and lactic acid began to accumulate. Paul gave Brooke the last tag leaving her in second place behind western Australian Ryanne Shaw (no slouch herself). However, little Brooke still had some dance moves left in her and she danced through the inside of Ryanne with one and a half to go to bring home the bacon in the last race of Australian track nationals.
Unofficially, I do believe that victoria was once again comprehensively victorious over their interstate bretheren. For full results click here.
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