Last day on the road of San Benedetto: 5000m relays

5000M-relays: 4 titles at stake, 4 different winners! (2/2)

The evening ended with the finals of those relays.

Contrary to the track, Colombia was never competitive enough to grab all gold medals on the road. Was it because of the rain or because of the road? Who knows? Colombia did not actually even manage to qualify in all finals (Colombia was not in the Senior men final indeed!). Europeans however seemed quite at ease since three out of the four titles were won by European nations. France qualified none of its teams in any categories which was quite surprising since that nation used to perform on that type of races.

The finals took place under heavy rains again and all skaters did not skate with MPC –storm-wheels, which was quite unexpected. Some of them kept their Matter-G13 and seemed not to slipper too much. Considering the type of race and the weather conditions, the best place to be probably was the front of the group in order to avoid falls. That is the place that all nations tried to have… but things did not always go so smoothly.

Junior Ladies

China Taipei (with Yen Tzu Chu, Ching Ting Chang and Yi Hsuang Liu), South Korea (with Ga Ram Yu, Kyung Ok Yang and So Yeong Lee), Germany (with Katharina Rumpus, Alisa Gutermuth and Carolin Zielke), Italy (with Sofia d’Annibale, Giulia Lollobrigida and Arianna Piazza), Colombia (with Nathalia Giraldo, Fabriana Arias and Magda Garces) and Chile (with Catalina Hraste, Daniela Tapia and Javiera San Martin) qualified for the final.

The group was quite compact and no nations were left behind during the whole race. The race was however rather turbulent since it ended up being quite difficult to keep its position in the pack. A skater could easily pass from the 1^st to the last place within just one corner. When the bell rang, Colombia was leading the pack, closely followed by Italy and China Taipei. Germany did not manage to enter in the pack in good position and had to stay at the end of the group. In the last straight-line, Colombia was passed by Italy, China Taipei and Germany! Katharina Rumpus (Germany,) who came from behind, raced masterfully until the final line and managed to offer to Germany its first gold medal of the competition. Italy came second and South Korea came third.

Junior Men

Colombia (with Andres Campo, Boris Pena and Mauel Saavedra), Chile (with Hugo Ramirez, Camilo Diaz and Lucas Silva), Venezuela (with Sebastian Paredes, Alvaro Zambrano and Julio Mirena), the Netherlands (with Lars Scheenstra, Luc ter Haar and Gerco van de Beek), Italy (with Mateo Melis, ALessio Paciolla and Alberto Putignano) and China Taipei (with Yu Lin Huang, Tsu Cheng chao and Yu Hua Liu) qualified for the final.

The group of skaters was rather compact. The race was very tonic and skaters kept switching positions until the final sprint. In the last corner, Italy was ahead in front of Colombia and the Netherlands. Chile was still fighting for the medal when Colombia passed Italy, so did the Netherlands. Colombia finally won, in front of the Dutch, Chile and Italy. Chile and Italy were both first declared 3^rd with the same times. After seeing the photo finish, Chile was declared 3^rd and Italy 4^th.

Senior Ladies

Germany (with Jana Gegner, Mareike Thum and Sabine Berg), Italy (with Giulia Bongiorno, Erika Zanetti and Francesca Lollobrigida), the Netherlands (with Irene Schouten, Manon Kamminga and Ema de Vries), Colombia (with Elizabeth Arnedo, Cecilia Baena and Kelly Martinez), China Taipei (with Meng Chu Li, Ho chen Yang and Fu Jen Liu) and South Korea (with Yi Seul An, So Yeong Shin and Hyo Sook Woo) qualified for the final. All teams were elbowing while Italy was at the end of the pack, not trying to fight with anybody until the 2 last laps of the race. Thanks to Francesca Lollobrigida, Italy managed to pass in the front when the bell rang. In the last Corner, Italy was still ahead in front of the Netherlands and Colombia. The race was far from being finished at that point since the Netherlands did an incredible sprint to go cross the line in first position in front of the local team. How tremendous! Italy could not do better than second on that race and China Taipei came 3^rd. Colombia finished 4^th, Germany 5^th and South Korea 6^th.

Senior Men

The last race of the day was the Senior men one. Belgium (with Bart Swings, Ferre Spruyt and Jore Van den Berghe), Italy (with Lorenzo Cassiolo, Fabio Francolini and Patrizio Triberio), the Netherlands (with Crispijn Ariens, Mark Horsten and Gary Heckman), Swiss (with Ben Alchin, Roman Christen and Yves Reist), Chile (Jorge Reyes, Ricardo Verdugo and Rolando Ossandon), and New-Zealand (with Kalon Dobbin, Peter Michael and Scott Arlidge) qualified for the final. Italy quickly escaped from the group and stayed in the front for a few laps while Belgium and the Netherlands tried to catch it up, successfully. In the following laps, nations kept switching places again and again until the Netherlands managed to pass in the front more than a lap from the arrival. At the bell, the Dutch was still ahead, Italy, Belgium, Chile and New-Zealand were closely following. Swiss was a bit behind. In the second last corner, King Bart Swings decided to take the lead and kept that position until the end of the race. Italy finished second and Chile finished 3^rd.

At the end of the evening, spectators as skaters and trainers were ready to go back to their hotels to get warmer and to dry… Everyone was soaking wet!

Statistics

500m sprint

Brief comments: South Americans in general and Colombians in particular, clearly dominated the Juniors. They were however completely absent of the Senior podiums. On the opposite, European Senior skaters were very strong since they took the gold and the silver medals both in the ladies’ and in the men’s relays.

5000m relays: Europe dominates, Colombia behind.

Brief comments: While Colombia had grabbed the four titles on the track, it managed to take only one medal on the road! Europeans did better since (thanks to Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium), they grabbed three out of four titles. The silver medals were all taken by Europeans (three for Italy and one for the Netherlands) and the bronze medals were shared between Chile (2 medals), China Taipei and South Korea.

Links

D6: 5000m relays Senior Men
D6: 5000m relays Junior Men
D6: 5000m relays Senior Women
D6: 5000m relays Junior Women

By Léa Réguer Petit
Photos: Powerslide