World Championships Inline Speed Skating 2016: First day of road racing

100m on the road

The organization of the World Championships 2016 Inline Speed Skating in Nanjing uses the 100m track next to the tribune of the Youth Olympic Games. But unfortunately there are not too many spectators. Which is a sad, because the environment is very green – an oasis in the middle of the concrete sea of Nanjing.
The heats of the 100m were held from 8 am until late morning; the finals took place at night under floodlights.

Junior Women

The Colombian Geiny Pajaro (10,953 – COL) dominated the 100m. She outclassed her competitors with a time under 11 seconds. Her time of 10.953s would have given her a top 5 placement at the Senior Women competition. Giulia Bonechi (11,263 – ITA) wins silver and Elisabeth Baier (11,422 – GER) bronze. It’s nice to determine that the German team scored excellent results in the sprint races – also with Laethisia Schimek, medalist at the senior women’s race.

Junior Men

South America has a great sprint culture! The Venezuelan Wilfredo Valbuena (10.0003) proves his top speed on the straight line. His time would have given him place 6 in the senior men’s race. Valbuena beat the Swiss Lukas Lida (10,088) and the Italian Giacomo Serna (10.121).

Senior Women: Maria Jose Moya Sepulveda confirmed her world class

The Chilean Maria Jose Moya Sepulveda is definitely the world’s fastest woman! In the 100m final she won in front of Yesenia Escobar (COL) and Laethisia Schimek (GER). Sprinters like Jercy Puello (COL), Erin Jackson (USA) or Yi Seul An (KOR) dropped out in the semifinals.

Senior Men: Mexican Surprise

Hosting the 100m races is still quite new, but you can already see the specializations of some athletes. In the final, it is the Mexican Jorge Luis Martinez Morales who crosses the finish line first. He defeated Ioseba Fernandez (ESP) and the world champion Simon Albrecht (GER) – two of the fastest skaters in the world.
In the semifinals, Jorge Luis Martinez Morales (MEX) beats already Juan Camilo Perez (COL) and Kamo Mao Chieh (TPE). Ioseba Fernadez (ESP) wins against Kim Jim Young (KOR) and Andres Agudelo (COL). Simon Albrecht (GER) was faster than Emanuelle Silva Santibanez (CHL) and Riccardo Passarotto (ITA) in his semifinal.

Long distance racing

20k elimination Senior Women: battle of world champions

The top 6 of the 20k elimination race of senior women has an impressive record. All skaters have multiple world titles or medals at world championships. In the end, Fabriana Arias (COL) wins in a thrilling final sprint against Francesca Lollobrigida (ITA) and Mayra Arias Yaquel (ARG). Mareike Thum finishes fourth. The three winners are only separated by two tenths. This year Sandrine Tas skates below the expectations, she has not yet won any medal. In this race, she ended up sixth.

Senior Men: the organization tangles

Once again, the organization changed surprisingly the timetable of the competitions. The finals of the 100m were pushed before the elimination race of the senior men, although these were already warming up on the road. The speaker announced that the finalists of the 100m have 15min to warm up for their final. Fortunately, the award ceremonies always take a bit longer and thus delayed the start of the 100m finals – a 100m race without good warm-up can cause serious injuries.

End of the story: the road course is not wired everywhere; therefore you cannot hear well the numbers of the skaters who were eliminated. This is why the organization wants to use a motorcycle to announce the numbers. However, there was no bike available that was fast enough for the race… For this reason, the organization decided to delay the race to have enough time to find a bike that is fast enough.
However, the process took so long that it was already too dark on the unlit road course. The senior men refused to start under these conditions. Eventually, the competition has been postponed until Friday morning.

10k points junior men: a very close decision

It’s very rare that all three medalists have the same amount of points! But that is exactly what has happened in Nanjing this night. Saul Herreño (COL), Daniele Di Stefano (ITA) and Caleb Wakefield (USA) achieve six points. The American skates one of the best race of his career, he was able to break away right from the start of the race, but in the end he crosses the finish line after his two rivals. This may have cost the gold medal, but also earned him the bronze medal. The Frenchman Martin Ferrié got fourth.

10k points Junior Women

Ecuador won his first gold medal at a world championship thanks to Gabriela Vargas (7 points). She defeated the Chinese Huiyan Fang (6 points) and the Colombian skater Maria Fernanda Barros (6 points). The enthusiasm around the track was due to the great performance of the Chinese athlete Huiyan Fang.

Links

2016 edition of the World Roller Speed Skating Championships in Nanjing (China)