He says New Zealand has built a good reputation in skating, having made its presence known in the past four years.
"We always like to think we can beat them so the Oceanias are virtually between Australia and New Zealand," he says, revealing when it began more than a decade ago the Aussies ruled.
The Kiwis have incrementally honed their skills, not to just match them but also surpass them.
"We're getting more trophies than they are. I think last year they got one and we got five in the mixed grades in Oceanias."
Hancock hastens to add sometimes the Oceania Championship can be more relaxed than the nationals because the latter exudes familiarity and the impending tension, whereas the former predominantly carries unknown quantity so athletes tend to do their best.
"It's probably more the achievement in the internationals than where you come and, hopefully, you do well."
He has been coaching since 1982 but started roller skating competitively since 1965, before retiring as an athlete in 1981.
Judging beckoned but it couldn't prevent him from gravitating towards coaching to keep him in the sport.
"Judging wasn't intense enough so I haven't stopped coaching since then," says the Taranaki-born coach, who shifted to Napier in 1970.
When Hancock was 15 he stumbled on to the sport because his sister, Patsy, wanted to skate at a park in Stratford.
"She wasn't allowed to go on her own unless someone went with her so I got dragged along.
"I kept at it and she gave it up," says the late bloomer, who started competitively when he was 19.
While he harbours some regret not latching earlier on to a code that was booming in the 1950s, he is satisfied he got to as far as the world championship.
"I went to the worlds only once because my partner decided she had had enough and retired," says Hancock, a masters figure national champion for five consecutive years.
He had to stop because his knees packed up.
