Club news - 1/9/5
British rollerski series - commentary

For more pictures of the British Championships 2005, see here.


 

BRITISH ROLLERSKI CHAMPIONSHIPS 2005 - REPORT AND RESULTS

The 2005 British Rollerski Championships took place on 2 July in dry, hot and overcast conditions at Hayes, West London. The field included entrants from as far away as the USA, Aviemore and Huntly in Scotland and Lancashire.

The main race was tightly fought with London Russian Peter Kuznetsov fighting it out with London skiers Hugh Pritchard and Iain Ballentine, and Eurosport skiing / biathlon comentator Patrick Winterton. The lead changed several times during the race, with Hugh Pritchard making a break for the lead towards the end of the second last lap. He was unable to hold his advantage though, and the rest of the group dug deep to catch up. Kuznetsov fought back through and, along with Winterton, overtook Pritchard to take first place. Winterton finished second (and was first British finisher) with Pritchard and Ballentine following close behind.

The ladies and junior men races were dominated by Scottish skiers. Olwen Thorn from Huntly Nordic Ski Club showed her dominance right from the start, finishing 2 laps ahead of Fiona Crossley from the Yorkshire Dales, the 2004 British Series champion.

Alastair Duncan, from Mike Dixon's newly formed Cairngorm Biathlon and Nordic Ski Club, showed how far he's come on since he started rollerskiing last year to become mens junior champion. Fiona Hughes (who with Alastair is a member of the GB Junior Development Squad) finished well ahead of the novice ladies to be crowned junior ladies champion.

Other results of note include Julie Hulse of the USA, who completed 14 laps on slow Marwe 610 training rollerskis to be 4th fastest lady, and Kath Joy (of BBC 2's Yukatak Challenge Programme) who wasn't far behind on 13 laps, also on Marwe 610s.

IAIN BALLENTINE

 

Main race - 1 hour plus 1 lap

Position Category Category position Laps Time Name Club
1 M 1 19 1:01.29 Peter Kuznetsov Russia
2 M 2 19 1:01.29 Patrick Winterton  
3 M 3 19 1:01.29 Hugh Pritchard * LRNSC
4 M 4 19 1:01.29 Iain Ballentine * LRNSC
5 M 5 18 1:05.19 Sorin Milas LRNSC
6 M 6 18 1:06.18 Gerard Evans LRNSC
7 M 7 17 1:04.30 Jonty Summers LRNSC
8 L 1 17 1:05.18 Olwen Thorn * HNSC
9 M 8 16 1:05.14 Marek Pasterny LRNSC
10 M 9 15 1:08.02 Richard Butler  
11 L 2 15 1:08.04 Fiona Crossley Yorkshire Dales
12 L 3 15 1:10.35 Irene Chawko LRNSC
13 M 10 14 1:08.51 Colin Tucker  
14 L 4 14 1:12.25 Julie Hulse USA
15 L 5 13 1:09.16 Kath Joy * LRNSC
16 M 11 12 1:05.46 Dominic Luck LRNSC
17 M 12 12 1:07.17 Brendan Gabriel * LRNSC
18 M 13 12 1:07.57 George Gabriel LRNSC
19 M 14 12 1:08.14 John Saunders LRNSC
20 L 6 11 1:11.33 Mary Wray LRNSC
21 M 15 10 1:07.26 Gerard Ollier LRNSC
22 L 7 10 1:09.34 Amanda Cox LRNSC
23 L 8 7 1:10.10 Laura Long LRNSC
24 L 9 7 44.11 DNF Catherine Thomas LRNSC

* denotes member of Snowsport GB British Cross-Country Ski Squad. For more information on this newly formed squad which has been training together in the summer and will race in the winter on snow, contact George Gabriel, Nordic Director of Snowsport GB.

 

Juniors and novice ladies - 5 laps race

Position Category Position Category Laps Time Name Club
1 Junior M 1 5 17.52 Alastair Duncan @ CNBC
2 Junior M 2 5 21.16 Simon Spencer  
3 Junior L 1 5 26.55 Fiona Hughes @  
4 L 1 5 30.33 Amanda Cox LRNSC
5 L 2 5 34.52 Jane Leary LRNSC
6 L 3 5 46.28 Catherine Malcolm LRNSC
7 L DNF 2   Judy Trinnaman LRNSC
8 L DNF 2   Veronica Hempel LRNSC

@ denotes member of the Snowsport GB Nordic Development Squad. This squad has been in existence for a number of years, and has developed some of the UK's most promising young nordic skiers. Recently it's had some of the best results at the British Cross-Country Ski Championships in Ruhpolding, Germany. For more information on this squad contact Angharad Evans, team director.

The various ski clubs in GB have regular club training sessions on rollerskis, as well as other training sessions, and support skiers of all levels, including those who want to trial for national squads. The most active clubs are Huntly Nordic Ski Club, the London Region Nordic Ski Club and potentially the newly formed Cairngorm Biathlon and Nordic Ski Club in Aviemore and its surrounding area.

 

 

British rollerski series race 9th July - results

This race was 7 laps of classic followed immediately by 7 laps free, for a total of 22 kms.

Winner was Patrick Winterton, who led from the start. After 7 laps of classic he was one minute 30 seconds ahead of second place man Mark Gee who fell out of contention as a result of doing the skating leg on slow rollerskis. Iain Ballentine finished second, followed by British Rollerski Champion Peter Kuznetsov.

The classic leg required skiers to use ratchet rollerskis. The results below show the positions for those who completed the race per the rules, followed by the results for those who completed the race but did not use ratchet rollerskis for the classic leg, and those who did not complete the race.

The British Masters Cross Country Ski Association, which ran the race (and provided me with the results), also ran a course with Mark Gee coaching.

Position Category Category position Laps Time after 7 laps classic Time at finish Name Club
1 M 1 14 27.27 50.49 Patrick Winterton  
2 M 2 14 30.50 55.47 Iain Ballentine LRNSC
3 M 3 14 31.38 56.20 Peter Kuznetsov Russia
4 M 4 14 30.55 58.47 Adam Pinney LRNSC
5 M 5 14 28.54 1:01.15 Mark Gee CBNSC
6 L 1 14 38.20 1:07.12 Irene Chawko LRNSC
7 L 2 14 40.08 1:10.44 Fiona Crossley Yorkshire Dales
8 M 6 14 36.21 1:11.35 Brendan Gabriel LRNSC
9 M 7 14 40.12 1:13.51 Alan Shepard MCCSC
10 M 8 14 ? 1:14.10 George Gabriel LRNSC
11 M 9 14 ? 1:46.45 Alan Jones MCCSC
12 M 10 14 1:07.09 1:52.09 Gerard Ollier LRNSC
13 M   14 ? 50.38 Sorin Milas LRNSC
14 M   14 31.40 59.27 Gerard Evans LRNSC
15 M   13 38.10 1:02.25 Chris Richards LRNSC
16 L   4 - 28.21 Laura Long LRNSC
17 M   1 - 5.02 Yevgeniy Gorbenko LRNSC
18 L   1 - 5.40 Nicola Walker LRNSC

1.6k childrens race results:

Name  
Digby Walker 8.52
Roland Walker 10.03
Stefani Pinney 11.40
Magnus Walker 14.30

Further analysis

 

Click for results of Huntly British Series rollerski race results.

 

See also rollerski events run by Snowsport England Nordic Committee and the full events calendar of the London Region Nordic Ski Club.