Whanganui speed skaters show plenty of skill at Oceania champs

Chase Morpeth (NZ) (left) and Harry Geary (Aus) with Tyler Robertson falling and breaking his wrist in the background. Photo / Supplied

A team of six Whanganui club skaters made the trip to Timaru in September to compete in the 2022 Oceania Speed skating championships.

The event was scheduled to take place between September 8 to 10, however wet weather meant the marathon event was moved to September 11.

The six Whanganui skaters were Paul Cleeve (Masters Men), Crystal Denbee (Masters Ladies), Andrew Jones (Senior Men), Chase Morpeth (Junior Men), Tazia Parker (Cadet Girls) and Sopie Liang (Cadet Girls) who was skating for China in the event.

Twenty-seven of Australia's top skaters were competing in the event, and as usual while there is no love lost on the track, the camaraderie off track was fantastic.

Chase Morpeth put in a standout performance, using Oceania as a buildup to the upcoming world champs taking place in Buenos Aires this month. He took out the aggregate award for the Junior men's grade which was no easy feat.

Chase was the only NZ Junior Boy, competing against five good Aussie skaters who used team tactics to hold Chase out as best they could. Chase was well aware of this and kept alert through every race, chasing down any breakaways or keeping himself handy in the pack to make moves when needed.

Chase came away with three golds in the 200m time trial, 1000m and the 10km points elimination. three silvers in the 500m, 10km elimination and the 42km marathon.

Andrew Jones also skated as the only Kiwi in a field of five Australian skaters and one Iranian skater (who lives in Australia), with the talented multiple-time world champ attendee Harry Stogdale there to help his teammates race against the Kiwi.

Andrew stuck to his strengths, making breakaways and doing a lot of leading in order to prevent the team racing tactics.

Andrew led most of the 42km marathon with Harry on his back who took off in the last 2-3 laps. Andrew came home with two silvers in the 10km elimination and marathon races and two bronze in the 500m and 1000km races.

Crystal was up against an ex-worlds attendee from Timaru and skated valiantly to secure silvers in all her races.

Paul Cleeve skated against a tough field of Australians and could not secure a podium spot, despite every effort.

The cadet girls' grade saw the largest group of 12 skaters and it was a very even playing field. Tazia took home gold in the 1000m race, silver in the team relay and bronze in the half marathon. She was a bit unlucky in the 5km elimination, crashing over another skater who had fallen.

Skating for China, Sophie was able to skate alongside the UK skater to form a two-person relay which saw the team take third place. Unfortunately, the officials bungled the laps, meaning every team was disqualified with the race repeated later on in the day – a tough ask, as every other team had three skater teams.

Sophie gained a lot of race experience and a chance to eye up her competition for nationals next year when the big girls move out of the cadet grade – she will be one to watch!