Speed skaters' great performance

ON A ROLL: National Juvenile Boys champion and Whanganui skater Drew Brennan went through unbeaten in his class to win the title at the 2016 Laurie Hastie speed skating meeting in Palmerston North at the weekend.PHOTO/SUPPLIED

THE 2016 Laurie Hastie speed-skating meeting, hosted annually over two days by the Manawatu Skating Club, was a successful outing for the Whanganui speed-skating team.

Drew Brennan was the dominant force in the Juvenile Boys' grade. The national champion showed his class, winning all his races to take the Indoor title.

However, a fall in one of the outdoor races meant he had to share that title with Sean Sullivan who won that race and finished second in all the others. Lucas Hodgson battled hard in his first outing in this grade.

Andrew Jones was outstanding in the Senior Men's grade, taking second overall in both indoor and outdoor events and pushing Valley Inline star Antony Nalder all the way in all the races.

In the event's feature race, the 5000m Rodger Croad Memorial, the pair ran away from the field with Jones hanging on Nalder's wheel lap after lap. Eventually Nalder broke free for the win, with Jones an outstanding second and now showing signs of breaking into the elite group among New Zealand's senior skaters. Jones was up against it as Nalder was probably having one of the better days of his life, celebrating both his 30th birthday and successfully proposing to his girlfriend over the PA system after his big win. Whanganui's Eden Smith showed flashes of speed but was hampered by injury.

Renee Teers was too strong in the small Junior Girls' field and coasted to wins in all her races over her younger competitors, Manawatu's Ocean Wooley and Valley Inline's Jasmin Beech. For her final race of the weekend, the 5km points, the organisers combined the girls with the junior boys and Teer's showed her class by skating away from the combined field win. She also placed second to Valley Inline's Georgia Hurley in the Open Women's 3000m feature indoor race.

Whanganui's Cassandra Bonica won the Juvenile Girls' title but had a battle on her hands with teammate Keira Hodgson taking two wins off her over the longer distances.

Mickey Zhang won several races in the primary grade and Keira Brennan picked up some strong second places.

Johnmen Zhang was a race winner in Masters B. Krystine Davies was entered to race Masters A but her preparation for this year's Masters World Championship Marathon meant she has committed to training exclusively on the Marathon legal only 125mm wheels and was ineligible to race.