That’s right, this was the first time either Sprint or Allround Games were ever held in Asia (or for that matter anywhere outside Western Europe or North America). 117 skaters took part from 10 countries: Finland, Germany, Norway, Netherlands, Sweden, Romania, United States, Russia, Ukraine and certainly Kazakhstan. On Friday, the participants braved temperatures of -30°C during a city tour. They visited Astana landmarks, enjoyed the views from Baiterek tower, visited the newly built Astana opera and watched the training of young cycling track athletes at Astana Saryarka Cycling track. The tour was followed by a welcome reception. The conditions for the competition inside Alau Ice Palace were their usual comfort: air at +13°C air, ice at -6,6°C. The Games were opened with a brief ceremony, watched by hundreds of spectators: Alau Ice Palace together with organizers decided to go on with public skating in the center rinks to popularise speed skating. This had a great effect: dozens of parents requested to sign up their children to speed skating training groups.For the first time we had a participant from Great Britain, Henry Vincent (M30). He was very happy having improved his 500m record by almost two seconds to 42,94, and his 1500m record by almost 6 seconds to 2.11,69! We hope to see more of UK Master Skaters from now on.
The competition continues tomorrow with a choice of distances from 500m through 5000m. The International Competition is combined with the Norwegian Masters Championship.
Picture 1: Lars Fredrikson/SWE(left) and Jan Petter Fredriksen/NOR (right) ready for start at the 1500m.
Picture 2: Marja Haartsen/NED/NOR having a chat with Vincent Henry/GBR.
Picture 3: Master Skaters from Italy and Norway in friendly chat.
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