The Organizers of “Masters’ All-round Games 2014” hosted the “9th Masters’ International Single Distance Races” in Stavanger/NOR on January 19th and 20th. Participating were 84 skaters mainly from Norway, but among them were also participants from Australia, Germany, The Netherlands, Italy and Sweden. The most exotic participant in this event was Michael King (M65) who came from Melbourne/AUS just for one week and to race the 10.000m. Not only that – he had also learned Norwegian by himself in advance with the help of a CD course!
The skaters were very enthusiastic about the fairly new icehall of Sørmarka Arena which provided excellent skating conditions. 13 new IMSSC Records were made – many of them in the big combination (500, 5000, 1500, and 10.000) which is an option in these races. However, Ivar Njøs (M45) made a new record in the Sprint combination, and he was only 1 hundredth of a second from equalling the 500m record of his class which is 37,71 from Calgary/CAN 2007. Frode Eidsmo (M50) made 7:08,95 on 5000m, an outstanding result at 48 meters above sea level! The results of this week-end make the All-round Games in Stavanger next season rather auspicious.
The records made at Sørmarka Arena were the following:
F50 - Big combination (500, 5000, 1500, 10.000): Sara Hemmer, NOR - 224,932
M30 - 10.000m: Enrico Heinowsky, GER - 15:19,73
M30 - Big combination (500, 5000, 1500, 10.000): Enrico Heinowsky, GER - 179,473
M45 - Sprint combination (500, 1000, 500, 1000): Ivar Njøs, NOR - 153,085
M45 - Big combination (500, 5000, 1500, 10.000): Olaf Kotva, GER - 172,255
M50 - Big combination (500, 5000, 1500, 10.000): Frode Eidsmo, Aktiv SK - 173,299
M65 - Big combination (500, 5000, 1500, 10.000): Onar Westerheim, Stord IL - 186,732
M75 - Ord. combination (500, 3000, 1500, 5000): Arne Kjell Foldvik, NOR - 207,814
M80 - 500m: Martin Fagna, NOR - 56,30
M80 - 1500m: Martin Fagna, NOR - 2:55,49
M80 - 5000m: Martin Fagna, NOR - 11:36,43
M80 - 10000m: Martin Fagna, NOR - 23:21,60
M80 - Big combination (500, 5000, 1500, 10.000): Martin Fagna, NOR - 254,519
(please note that all records are preliminary)