World Championships Inline Speed Skating: the Marathon closes the edition 2016

Results

A wide, well-paved and fast course

7:30am. The sun is already shining for this last day in the heart of Nanjing. The marathon course is 5k long and has a T-shape. The road, on which the marathon takes place, is a 2×4 lane. Every Marathon organizer would be jealous for such a nice course. The road surface is very smooth and very fast. The circuit is cleaned every day. Fortunately, most of the road was dry before the start of the race.

Excessive security

The organization can rely on the local police in terms of safety: entering the course was impossible without permission with nearly a policeman every 50m! Moreover, even with an accreditation it was hard to enter due to the eagerness of the police and the language barrier: you had to walk a 3k detour to reach the start and finish area. The marathon course was completely blocked by bars, which also didn’t favor spectating.

Women’s Marathon

The women’s race began at 9 am, juniors and seniors started together. A big part of the pack had chosen the 125mm wheels, a logical conclusion for a course with so many straight lines. The great nations like Colombia, Italy, Korea, Taiwan controlled the pack. But also small nations such as France, China (Guo Dan), Germany (Mareike Thum), Belgium (Sandrine Tas ), Chile, Venezuela and Argentina (Mayra Arias Yaquel) fought for the front positions.

Mayra Yaquel Arias (ARG), Laura Gomez (COL), Mareike Thum (GER) and Liu Yi Hsuan (TPE) tried to break away in the beginning of the race. But they were caught again after a few kilometers. No break away succeeded in the end.

The finish was therefore a bunch sprint: Taiwan implemented a double victory: Liu Yi Hsuan wins in front of her teammate Huang Yu Ting and in front of the Frenchwoman Clémence Halbout. The Chinese Guo Dan got fourth, Francesca Lollobrigida (ITA) fifth and Juliette Pouydebat (FRA) sixth. The first eight skaters finished within the same second.

Men’s Marathon

The men’s race started directly with a very high pace. A large part of the skaters chose 125mm wheels.
Several skaters tried to break away during the race: Peter Michael, the French, Italy…

A group of 4 skaters finally managed a gap between themselves and the pack: Alex Cujavante (COL), Hamilton Patiño (COL), Nolan Beddiaf (FRA) and Rodrigo Matute (ECU). But it was not possible to break away on the wide streets of Nanjing. It’s difficult to make a speed differences with the 125mm wheels. The race turned inevitably into a bunch sprint. The team from France prepared the final sprint well: they controlled the final kilometers from the front, but they were overtaken on the final straight line on the outside. The road was so wide that the sprint took place on 4 lanes. The Argentine Juan Cruz Araldi turns out to be the fastest. He defeated Peter Michael (NZL) and Riccardo Bugari (ITA). Felix Rijhnen (GER) got fourth with only some millimeters missing, Ewen Fernandez (FRA) got fifth. The first 17 skaters finished within a second.

Links

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