Ice skater dominates racing on wheels at Timaru

Wednesday, 4 December 2024

Mark McCormack leads Kyla Beveridge, Brayden Teague, Callum Sandri, Grace Worner, Lauren Crawford and Zachary Hu during the Begg Classic speed skating event in Timaru.

Dunedin's Mark McCormack has smoothly switched from ice to wheels to be the big winner as the South Canterbury Speedskating Club's 10-round Southern endurance series concluded at the weekend.

There was much interest in McCormack's performance at Timaru's Caroline Bay track after the World Cup long track ice skater had raced with the New Zealand pursuit team in Japan recently.

McCormack, as expected, was too strong and experienced in the Begg Classic 50km track race.

However, there another impressive performance from Brayden Teague who won first won the cadet 25km event and then carried on to finish about 400m behind McCormack in the men's 50km event.

Callum Sandri, back recently from an international speed skating meet in Taiwan, produced an impressive performance to finish third for a racer who favoured sprint distances.

Oceania champions, Geraldine's Grace Worner and Kyla Beveridge, battled each throughout before Worner got clear to win the women's 50km in what was a fast and hard race.

In the cadet 25km boys, Teague was too strong and won from Zachary Hu, with the same situation in the cadet girls 25km with Lauren Crawford (Cave), the Oceania cadet half marathon champion, proving too good for juvenile champion Gemma Thornley and Ivy Chetuynd of Waimate.

The primary 5km boys was won by Mason Teague from Phoenix Mattingley and Ange Hu while Sophie Thornley produced a good effort to win the girls 5km.