Sunday, September 20, 2009

Desert Classic 2009 - Salt Lake City

The weekend of the 12th September saw Ben Southee and LT debutant Corey Williams skate the Desert Classic in SLC.

Although reports suggest that the ice was well below the normal SLC standard, some promising times were skated by Ben and Corey.

Ben skated two personal records in the 500m and 1000m distances.

Ben skated a 37.64 500m to finish 18th from 35 skaters, and a 1:12.68 1000m to finish 7th of 17.

In the 1500m, after 20mins break from his 1000m race, Ben skated a 1:53.56, finishing 4th from 10.

Corey Williams skated in the 500m and 1500m distances, skating in his RBC short track boots and a pair of 1997 Finn mechanism claps welded to a pair of Viking blades.

Corey posted a 40.82 500m and 2:06.64 1500m to finish down the field in both distances, but good for a debut. Corey advises that he had only tried the clap set up on the Thursday night, then raced on Saturday. Unfortunately, Corey is unable to represent Australia in world cups this season, but this will provide him with time to decide on his LT future. Corey orginates from Victoria but has skated for New Zealand in ST over the last few years, but plans to switch back to Australia.

Kiwi Shane Dobbin also competed, skating in the 500m and 5000m distances.
Shane posted a 38.63 500m and a 6:41.44 5000m finishing 2nd of 7.

Promising results for so early in the season.
Posted by Frank Anderson

4 comments:

  1. AnonymousSeptember 21, 2009 at 7:33 AM

    Thanks Frank! Good work on the site.
    Cheers,
    Danny Kah

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnonymousSeptember 21, 2009 at 10:40 AM

    Also saw Ben skated 1:52.25 at the Summer Classic in Calgary 9/8/09.

    Cheers Danny

    ReplyDelete
  3. Frank AndersonSeptember 21, 2009 at 10:51 AM

    Ben was hoping to do an Olympic qualifying time in the 1500m but the timing of the race and below average SLC ice conspired against him, but plenty of time still.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Frank AndersonSeptember 21, 2009 at 10:53 AM

    The next big race should be the Calgary International starting the 30th October. Both Ben and Richard G should be competing.

    ReplyDelete

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