Day 1 of the Calgary World Cup saw Daniel Greig disqualified from the Men's B division 500m. I am not aware of the circumstances surrounding this at the present time but I will try and find out more.
Ben Southee later contested the 1500m event and in doing so lowered Josh Lose's new record from last Saturday to skate a 1:48.24 to finish in 25th place in the Men's B division. This was after some perceived controversy surrounding the selection of Ben during the week to contest this event. Generally I will not publish political or potentially derogatory commentary through this site that may damage the reputation of skaters, selectors, the AIR or the sport in general, but if readers wish to read a particular viewpoint(s), click here as I believe that commentary about the sport should never be dissuaded.
Sophie Muir contested the Ladies B division 500m skating into 20th place with a 39.09.
Over the next two days, Josh Lose will contest the 5000m, Daniel Greig, the 1000m, Ben Southee, the 500m(2) and Sophie Muir, the 1000m.
Good luck guys.
NZ NEWS
Blake Skjellerup made his world cup debut today, and what a debut! Blake established a new NZ record in the 1500m, posting a 1:50.17 to finish in 33rd spot in the men's B division.
Saturday, December 5, 2009
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Ben Southee is one of the best ice skating talents Australia has seen for years.
ReplyDeleteHe is a multiple national title winner on the ice as a short track speed skater. Winning national titles from junior divisions, right up to winning the 2008 Australian Senior Mens Short Track title.
He currently manages the biggest ice speed skate store in Australia and his committment has lead to his father taking the lease out on 2 of the biggest and best ice rinks in Australia.
Ben has contributed (and continues to contribute) to the sport of ice speed skating in Australia.
Ben is an exceptional Short Tracker who is trying his hand at Long Track. He is not one of 'these' band wagon jumpers who need to travel to the other side of the world to ice skate on a long track, because short track; 1. Actually has skaters. and 2. is simply too hard.
Ben Southee now holds the 1500m National Long Track Record. The questioning of his allocation for the World Cup is insulting and completely stupid.
When Daniel Yeow is in charge of selection, only then will his ramblings and gripes be given any serious attention. Until then, he is in no position to make any these throw away statements.
Keep it up Ben! You're a champion!
Kind Regards,
Corey Williams
I have been following this blog for a few motnhs now and it is certainly something that wasn't around the last time there were long track skaters for australia, so thanks frank for taking the time to write it. I am a retired speed skater but i thoght I would weigh into the debate about selection.
ReplyDeleteI still keep in touch with many skaters and it is my understanding that the national coach asked for times to be weighted becuase one of her own skaters had their time beaten by Southee in calgary prior to Berlin? Was this not accepted? was southee selected because he had the best current season adjusted time from berlin or heerenveen? I heard that Lose had to skate around a 1:47 something to have the best adjusted time?????? And daniel yeow states on his site that it was a bad decision, but southee set a new natuional record, so was it not a good decision?
Politics and sport never seem to mix, but it does appear there is a group that are unhappy when their skaters don't get selected, and that is a shame, but probably why the national coach hasn't been consulted. Frank, do you know for sure??? I dont know any of the skaters, but i cant wait to watch them skate in Vancouver, whoever gets there. Its great to see some competitive aussies out there again. I like getting my daily piece of ASS! :-)
JD - Brisbane, Australia
It's a shame that there is this controversy surrounding selections within the National places for the world cups. I think that had this group of skaters been skating long track for a little longer one of two things would have happened. 1.There would be more places open for Australia within the world cup to run an extra skater. 2.The development of the Personal Records would have slowed a little and we might see a skater who is clearly better than the others.
ReplyDeleteCorey; Ben is clearly a talented skater on the ice, whether it be short or long track speed skating I think that nobody is going to disagree with the fact.
I think when you come onto the forums and state that the other skaters are
"One of these bandwagon jumpers who need to travel to the other side of the world to skate on a long track because short track 1. has other skaters and 2. is simply to hard"
makes you look a little silly, after all you had a go at the long track did you not? 'I guess it was too easy'
Perhaps these other skaters are skating on a long track on the other side of the world because 1. They can get good sponsorship and funding from some of the Dutch companies, 2. They are apparantly quite good at it (after all they have all done times that qualify for world cups), 3. There isn't a long track within Australia, and 4. They just aren't that interested in short track.
Yes, I tried long track for a couple of days on some short track boots and borrowed 15 inch vintage viking blades. Oh right. You wouldnt understand.....
ReplyDeleteReally, I dont care who qualifies if they all achieve selection. I just dont want to see arm chair experts (much like yourself) making outlandish statements about how someone (namely Ben Southee) doesnt deserve a spot on the World Cup team for the 1500m. At last glace he had the national record.
I look forward to seeing you down at the new Icehouse at Docklands next year........ Thinking about starting my own club. You should join it Andy! You can come share some of your on ice experience with me that you've gathered on message boards and websites.
Warmest Regards,
Corey
Corey,
ReplyDeleteI don't believe that I offered my expert opinion on anything, I do not pretend to have any kind of idea about equipment or ice skating, I read the blog about how you skated on some short track boots when you did some long track skating. I never made any kind of outlandish statement about Ben Southee and him not deserving a spot on the world cup team. In fact if you read my post correctly I stated that Ben is a very talented skater whether it be short or long track skating. After all, he is skating in world cups.
I might not have any "on ice" experience, but I do have plenty of experience with athlete development, and I know that there is a development period with any athlete adjusting to a new sport. Take Josh Lose as an example, in 1 year he has taken something like 38 seconds off his Personal Best Time for the 5000m, along with a massive chunk off his 1500m time.
Ben Southee has taken some 5 seconds off his 1500m time.
What I was stating was that had they all been skating for longer, the development of personal records would have slowed and I suspect its highly possible that one of them would have come through as the better skater, I don't know which one it would be. My other statement was that there would probably be more places in the world cups for these skaters to attempt qualification.
As for the "Icehouse" I heard that they were more interested in other disciplines, plus why build to small ice rinks when you could build one big one. What a waste of money.
Hi guys,
ReplyDeleteI appreciate the discussion points here but to be honest, I would like to make this blog a promotion of ALL Australian speed skaters vying for a spot in Vancouver and to publicise the sport, both LT and ST.
I met all the skaters in Berlin and watched them skate in Berlin and Heerenveen. If you put the recruiting of Daniel Greig, Josh Lose and Sophie Muir in the 'talent ID' strain, then Desly Hill certainly did well to pick three skaters who she thought had all the qualities to transition to the ice, and they have proven that.
Ben Southee and I spoke about him transitioning to the LT and I wouldn't always recommend this to all and sundry, but Ben is such a technical skater, I knew he would be able to transition without too many problems.
LT is very different to ST and inline (they are sports in their own right because of this) and it has taken a lot of effort for all the skaters, including Ben, to adapt to the ice. Ben had only two months of transition before racing, whereas the inliners had half a season plus the summer. But as you say Andy, these guys (and Sophie) are the first real group of quality skaters for Australia who have used claps, so it was always expected that records would fall - and have they what!
I pushed early for the AIR to request a second 1500m spot for the world cups as both competitiors (Ben and Josh) were developing strongly. This never happened. Unfortunately, when Ben was selected for the 1500m in Calgary, it created some angst amongst certain skaters and the AIR. I believe the AIR are still considering disciplinary action over some of the correspendance, but I can't confirm this for sure. The fact is, the AIR applied the selection policy, which had Ben's adjusted Calgary time that he skated in Berlin, to the selection for the Calgary world cup. As a result, Josh needed to skate in the vicinity of a 1:46.70 to compare (so I believe). I have subsequently found that the AIR selectors took several hours to decide on those positions, and they didn't just throw a dart at a dart board.
It was stated that the selectors integrity was in question, and I don't think anything could be further from the truth. One is a three time Olympian and one is an ISU referee who has officiated in two Olympics.
If this had all played out last season, then we would have had a couple of extra positions in the world this season, but it is just a shame that Josh didn't get to skate the 1500m as well. I am glad that I had nothing to do with the selection process as it would've been a very difficult decision to make!
Andy, I agree, building such a complex in Dicklands as they have was a bit silly, but it was apparently going to cost a couple of extra million to add in the long track. I for one would've moved to Melbourne just to be part of the LT scene.
The progress made by all skaters should be applauded and I truly hope that Daniel and Ben will score a country quota position for the games and that the AOC and OWI don't skimp on cash to send them. I also hope that the OWI doesn't allow one and not the other as the OWI do not sponsor Ben. The OWI have sponsored the inliners as they have come from what they refer to as 'another' sport. But I can assure you that LT and ST are just as different!
In closing, I will ask that we don't get personal on this blog and we try and leave positive comments for the skaters in the build up to the games. (The Bont Yuku seems to be the place for sniping :-)
Cheers Guys,
And I did mean Docklands, the I and O are right next to each other - oops!
ReplyDeleteFrank,
ReplyDeleteI never intended to have my posts come off as negative towards the skaters, and as with any kind of controversial discussion there is always some form of bad publicity involved with it (sorry for that). I never intended this, I just felt that it needed to be stated that the inliners aren't just hacks that have jumped ship to the other side of the world, they are all competent athletes that have made massive achievements in their previous sports. The three inliners competing at world cup level have all been junior world medallists on inlines, coming from a country with no funding for that sport this is a massive achievement.
I do not know alot about Ben's past, however, I watched a video from the short track nationals last year about two months ago where he skated away from the other guys droping them one by one in the 1500, it was an impressive effort, especially when I think from memory the three guys behind him were all in National uniforms.
I believe that the selection was a difficult one to make, was it the right one? We will never know that, as with any selection there is always the what if factor and in the end it comes down to the personal opinions of the selection panel (and there not there to make friends), thats a panel people who are all far more qualified than hopefully all of us following this blog. I saw good reasoning in the argument that Daniel Yeow put forward, two guys, on the same track, however as you stated on there Ben was still sick and obviously this would have to be taken into consideration by the selection panel. I can't say I envy the selectors positions one bit, its a hard one, there you have three guys smashing each others National records, week in, week out. I think that this is a good thing, it shows a little bit of Depth in the squad (including Ben and even if there is only a small group). When you consider that the Dutch and the American skaters have that many guys(and girls) in the world cups, and for that fact in A group alone, it proves that having a competitive country goes a long way raising the level of competition in that country.
As for the Docklands, well, that's government funding for you isn't it, (I could be a little jealous that inline gets $0 of funding)
I personally hope all the skaters make the Olympics as I will be cheering them on regardless.
Keep up the good work on the blog also, its good to be able to follow it.
(oh and nice freudian slip)