New Zealand speed skaters on path to Winter Olympics

[Samuel_Vimes]

Public information thread.

Shane Dobbin, 28 years old from Palmerston North and four-time world champion on inline skates, has decided to take up the sport of ice speed skating in a bid to compete at the Olympics. Dobbin thus follows a number of American skaters who have won gold medals on the ice after being successful inline skaters.

Yesterday, Dobbin skated his first timed 5,000 metre race, completing in a time of 6:37.96 - an Oceania record by 14 seconds - which would have been good for 20th place at the World Cup meet two weeks earlier. The qualifying time for the Olympics is 6:36.00.

Another Manawatu chap, 19-year-old D. J. Nation, also skated in this race, and though his time of 6:53.54 was considerably weaker, it places him ninth in the world for his age group.

Watch this space.

[BoyBrumby]

Know v little about speed skating, but didn't an Aussie win a gold medal in the short-track version when everyone else fell over a few years ago?

Only two other facts I can muster are that we used to have a guy who ruled when short-track was a demo sport at the Olympics (Wilf somebody?), but suddenly became gash when it was accorded full medal status & that the Dutch are good at the long track version. Or are by repute.

[Samuel_Vimes]

Originally Posted by BoyBrumby

Know v little about speed skating, but didn't an Aussie win a gold medal in the short-track version when everyone else fell over a few years ago?

Indeed. For the record, this is the long track version, so Mr Dobbin can't bank on this.

The rest of your post is mostly correct (the Wilf being O'Reilly), though the Brits occasionally come up with servicable placings. Jon Eley took 5th place at the 2006 Olympics. The two sports have little cross-over, though are administered by the same federations, and Americans occasionally attempt both.

[Chubb]

I think they should add hurdles events to speed skating tournaments- what a test of skill that would be.

It is good to see Kiwis going into winter sports because I feel New Zealand should be better at them than they are, particularly skiing. I have heard ski conditions in the Southern Alps are pretty good. Also, they ought to get some rugby players involved in bobsled.

[Smudge]

Originally Posted by Chubb

It is good to see Kiwis going into winter sports because I feel New Zealand should be better at them than they are, particularly skiing. I have heard ski conditions in the Southern Alps are pretty good.

Our winter athletes tend to opt for the creative side of things - the Wells boys, Jossi in particular, are performing reasonably well internationally

Also, they ought to get some rugby players involved in bobsled.

They did undertake a nationwide search and actually got one provincial player involved, Otago winger Karne Hesketh, but his rugby contract meant he had to pull out.

The bobsleigh team of Sam Higgie, Chris Donaldson, Tom Davie and leader Alan Henderson was formed earlier in the year after a nationwide talent identification programme trained promising strong New Zealand athletes in bobsleigh push techniques guided by international bobsleigh coach Gerd Grimme.

http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/CU0811/S00029.htm

Donaldson is a former Olympic sprinter, while Tom Davie is a young athlete from Otago as well. I'm guessing Henderson is the experienced bobsled driver...

[Samuel_Vimes]

Another Oceania record for Dobbin today. 6:32.43 in Salt Lake City, shaving five seconds off his time from the lowlands, and just two seconds behind the 2006 Olympic champion on the distance, Chad Hedrick (who didn't, admittedly, need full throttle). He's currently ninth in the meet, where the top six after four distances qualify for the World Allround Championships - it is, however, looking like he'll finish seventh. Tomorrow he'll attack the 1,500m and 10,000m records (1:50.52 and 14:17.70, respectively).

[roseboy64]

Can beat that. Have two skiers.

[Samuel_Vimes]

Originally Posted by roseboy64

Can beat that. Have two skiers.

Fair effort for an island without snow (?), it must be said.

Two though? Errol Kerr (who might make it in ski cross) and...

[Craig]

Originally Posted by roseboy64

Can beat that. Have two skiers.

Originally Posted by Samuel_Vimes

Fair effort for an island without snow (?), it must be said.

Two though? Errol Kerr (who might make it in ski cross) and...

Is it normal to imagine this being similar to Cool Runnings?

[roseboy64]

Gregg Samuels.

[Steulen]

And? Did he make it?

Despoite being Dutch, I am actually in favour of removing speed skating from the Olympics and replacing it with inline skating (would mean a winter to summer transfer obviously). This on the basis that I prefer a sport which has people from all over hte world competing to a Dutchies clean-sweeping a field of two Norwegians and a Yank.

[Samuel_Vimes]

Originally Posted by Steulen

And? Did he make it?

Not the World Allround Championship, no. Finished eighth, his poor sprinting killed his hopes. Set a couple more NZ records though: 1:51.54 on the 1500 (three seconds better than the old record) and 13:43.69 on the 10k (a 45-second improvement.) - and those times should be enough to qualify for the Olympics, though that process doesn't begin until next year.

Originally Posted by Steulen

This on the basis that I prefer a sport which has people from all over hte world competing to a Dutchies clean-sweeping a field of two Norwegians and a Yank.

Yes, I seem to remember your opinion on speed skating. Disagree, obviously. (Though I wouldn't be opposed to inline skating making the Summer Olympics; those decisions are rather invariant of each other though, as there are a lot more summer sports than winter sports wanting space in the Olympics.)

[Samuel_Vimes]

Bump.

While the nation was still frenzied by its footballing exploit (or just asleep), Shane Dobbin made his debut in a televised ice skating race during the 5000 metre in Heerenveen, Netherlands. Last week, in Berlin, he skated 6:26 on the 5000 metres without TV cameras, which qualified him for the race with the big boys; this time he did 6:30.90, which was good enough for 13th. Given there's 28 spaces on the 5000 metres, he seems more than likely to make that, and could also take part on the 10,000 metres, though there's only 16 spots there.

[Retox]

Originally Posted by Craig

Is it normal to imagine this being similar to Cool Runnings?

Any other way?