We're Just Wild About Harry!

Great to see Harry Spragg back on the ice. Harry will be well known to those whose involvement with short track in this country (and in Great Britain) stretches into the deep dark past.

Harry was game enough to jump in the deep end - getting involved in most of our activities including accelerations and even some relay!

Photo by Ted Szukalski of Digital-photo.com.au. Harry is joined by Sebastian Szukalski, Jesse Buosi and myself.

More Short Track Information and History

Mike O'Dea from England wrote to me and informed me that he has a copy of the 1978 World Short Track Championships video that he is in the process of converting and editing.

Mike has a site about UK short track which provides some information and history on speed skating in the United Kingdom. He informed me that he will be posting the video of the 1978 championships on his site in the near future, and I'll post the link here when it is completed - definitely something to look out for.

In the meantime, his site is well worth a look at with some 'back in the day' video footage in the archives.

By the way, Mike is 62 and still skating, having competed in this years British Short Track Championships held in Dundee, Scotland, finishing 6th out of 11 masters competitors - nice work!

Thanks Mike

WMST Skater Profiles

In an attempt to get to know the world masters short track community, I have commenced a masters profile page which will allocate skaters by country and then age division.

I have had some submissions already but I have attached a link to what the individual page would look like - starting with my own profile.

I know that skateonline.info has profiles, but they cater to every age group and not primarily masters.

I have attached a link for a profile form to complete and email to me if you would like to be added to the list. This will become my next project and hopefully it will receive some more support. Please feel free to email the completed form to me.

Lastly, thank you for all the emails I have recieved supporting this blog - I am really enjoying supporting the masters scene, and I am learning a whole lot at the same time. Hopefully I will get to compete against some of you over the next year or so.

Happy Skating
Frank

2008 Australian and New South Wales Championships Dates

The dates and venue for the 2008 Australian Short Track Championships were decided on Monday the 12^th of May at a meeting held at Canterbury Ice Rink.

The competition will be held Friday and Saturday the 3^rd and 4^th of October 2008 at the Sydney Ice Arena in Baulkham Hills, New South Wales.

I believe that it was also decided that the New South Wales Open Championships will be held on the preceding Sat and Sun the 27th and 28th of September at Canterbury Ice Rink (Sydney).

Discussions between Ellis Southee of the Sydney Ice Arena and myself lead to the idea (if international numbers made it viable) to hold a Masters International Sprint event between the two competitions, likely to be hosted by the Sydney Vikings Club and to be held at the Sydney Ice Arena. Ellis has given me an undertaking that ice time would gladly be supplied to support such an event.

Sydney is the 2000 Summer Olympic city and host to the Australian Youth Olympic Festival and is a very tourist friendly destination, with a very good public transport system and a great variety of world class tourist attractions.

There is a good amount of reasonably cheap accommodation in the Baulkham Hills/Castle Hill area, which is close to the Sydney Ice Arena or alternatively there is a great range of facilities in Sydney City, which is approximately 40km from the Sydney Ice Arena.

For those masters looking for a good amount of racing, this ‘carnival’ could be a good trip with the possibility of three events in 8 days, with rest/tourist days dotted in between. The Masters event would not be held or planned unless enough interest was shown well in advance to the proposed event

If you would consider coming to Australia to compete in this carnival, please register your interest by emailing me by the 15^th of June 2008. Registering your interest in no way binds you to attending or paying any fee.

Both of the NSW and Australian Championships will be open to skaters from midgets to masters age divisions.

As I indicated earlier, regardless of any specific masters event, the other two events will go ahead. I hope to see some 'international' flavour added to our Australian Championships.

Frank

1964 Short Track Video

I have attached the link to a video of short track speed skating in 1964. Thanks to Stefano from Italian Masters Speed Skating for the link. There is no sound to the video but it would appear to be a match between Scotland and England.

Link: 1964 Short Track Video

Frank

From the Video Vault #2 - 1991 Australian Open Short Track Championships

I recently found my old tapes from the 1991 Australian Short Track Championships held in Brisbane.

The two videos shown here are the 500m Veteran Mens semi-finals and final.

The final was won by Jim Lynch (1978 World Champion) and Harry Spragg came in third (1978 World Championship runner-up), so not a bad field!

For those of you skating on Pennington blades, Dennis is in the blue and grey suit, second from right in the second semi-final. Dennis was also a reserve for Australia during the 1978 World Championships

1991 - Veteran Mens 500m Final - Australian Short Track Championships




1991 - Veteran Mens 500m Semi-Finals 1 & 2 - Australian Short Track Championships

Have you got the edge?

So you think you have good edge control?

I was surfing the net and came across this interesting site that shows some very nice skills in a funky little video.

International Twin Track Association



Happy watching!
Frank

Season 08/09 Events Progress

The IMSSG has released a draft program of long track events for the coming season. Some events have been highlighted as being locked in and others are awaiting confirmation. All dates should be confirmed by October 2008. (2008/2009 IMSSG season)

On the short track front, Stefano Dotti of the Italian Masters Speed Skating Club has written to the officers in charge of masters speed skating in Europe with a proposed list of events for masters in the 2008/2009 European season.

Leon Quaglia in Chamonix (France) at the beginning of August 2008, (2007 results)
Opening Games in Turnhout (Belgium) beginning of October 2008, (2007 results)
Danish International in March 2009, (2008 results)
Italy International in April 2009,
Closing Games in Turnhout (Belgium) in 2009. (2008 results)

Stefano has a great photo gallery on his site with photos from a lot of the European events this season.

The Australian Open Short Track Championships are to be held in Sydney, Australia on the 26th and 27th of September 2008. Last year there was a field of 7 masters/veterans and all world Master skaters are invited to attend. In fact, being an open event, skaters from all divisions are invited to skate.

The competition is likely to be held at the Sydney Ice Arena (home of the Sydney Vikings) in Baulkham Hills but exact venue in Sydney will be confirmed in the coming months.

I will try and post more information in regards to short track events a little later in the year or as more information becomes available.

If you are aware of any proposed or programmed events for your region, feel free to drop me a line - email address in my profile.

Frank

Lars Wins Again

The Closing Games were held this weekend in Turnhout, Belgium with a field of 7 skaters in the veterans division.

The event consisted of a 1000m and 500m event with Lars Oritsland taking out both distances with season best times and Belgium skater Martijn Proost taking out overall 2nd place. Although there was only 7 skaters, there was a good mix of countries represented with competitors from Italy, Netherlands, France and Denmark, as well as two local skaters from Belgium.

For the full Veterans results, click here to be taken to the shorttrackonline link.

Frank

Results Updates

This post is to advise of the most recent additions/updates to blog. All these results can be opened in the side bar.

Located in 'Results'

2008 British Short Track Championships Masters results
2008 Dutch Masters Sprint Event - LT
2008 Ontario Regional Masters event
2008 Danish International Veterans Championship results
1978 World Short Track Championships - Mens and Ladies


Located in 'Records'

World Masters Short Track Records - Unofficial
Canadian Masters Short Track Records
Ontario Masters Short Track Records

Frank