Kelly Wins Pamplona WIC

Photo - Mundopatin.com

Kelly Martinez from the Bont Wheels Team took the victory this afternoon in the Pamplona World Inline Cup marathon. Alexandra Vivas who was the only other Bont Wheels Team member there finished in 5th place.

With just over 21km to go Kelly and Giovanna Turchiarelli ended up breaking away from the main pack. There were numerous attempts from skaters earlier on to try get away but none were successful. Kelly and Giovanna then went on to lap the field and take the first two placings.

Sabine Berg won the bunch sprint followed by Cecilia Baena. Alexandra Vivas came third in the bunch sprint and finished 5th in the race. With Kelly away on the break Alexandra was the only member of the team left for the sprint finish, so a great result.

Womens Top 10

1. Kelly Martinez (Bont Wheels)
2. Giovanna Turchiarelli
3. Sabine Berg
4. Cecilia Baena
5. Alexandra Vivas (Bont Wheels)
6. Brigyte Mendez
7. Jana Gegner
8. Rommy Munoz
9. Tina Struver
10. Nathalie Barbotin

My skates are back on my feet.

It's nearly four weeks since my crash in Heerde and this morning I went for my third skate since the accident. On Wednesday night I went for my first skate to see if it was actually possible to skate slowly without any pain. I was able to skate as long as I didn't put a lot of power down when I pushed or let my left foot fall on deep outside edges. On Thursday I went for another skate and just done a slow 10km. This morning it was a bit better and I could actually cross around the corners easier than on Wednesday and Thursday night. I still can't skate at 100% but it's only early days. Each day the movement in my foot is improving and looking back four weeks ago I couldn't even stand on it and now I'm actually skating so it's a huge improvement.

WIC and FIC This Weekend

Today the Pamplona Class 1 World Inline Cup marathon starts at 4.30 pm. Alexandra Vivas and Kelly Martinez are in Spain for this and Tamara Llorens will be racing tomorrow in the French Inline Cup marathon in Besancon. Alexandra and Kelly will also be racing tomorrow in Pamplona on the track.

The course for todays marathon in Pamplona is around a 1200 meter circuit, 600 meters one way then a turn and 600 meters back. So they will be completing 35 laps in total. A course like this can be quiet tough if the U-turns aren't very large because the pace stops and starts and you need to constantly accelerate. It will be interesting to see if any of the females are willing to make the race hard and attack because most of them are also racing on the track tomorrow.


I'm not too sure about the course for tomorrows French Inline Cup race but I do know that it's around a circuit and there are a few rises.

My Progress

It's been just over three weeks since my accident in Heerde and I'm not back on my skates yet but I am making progress and my foot is getting better. I have to wear the brace for another week but I can actually stand and walk on my foot now without the brace on and without any pain. The brace has been a lifesaver as I've been able to fit it into my cycling and running shoes so that means I've been able to train. My foot is still quiet swollen around the ankle and is lacking a normal range of movement at this stage.

I will not be able to race until I am off the medication for the thrombosis and today just confirmed that it's not worth the risk. I was peeling a mango when the peeler slipped and I just nipped the end of my finger. It was hardly even a cut but it bleed and bleed. I put a plaster around it and quiet a bit of pressure so that was at 12.30pm. I changed the plaster just before 5pm and as soon as I took the plaster off it started bleeding again. That was a big wake up call, I was warned by the doctors about bleeding but didn't think a tiny little cut could bleed for that long. So that put an end to any idea of racing before coming off of the medication, it's just too big a risk with very bad consequences if something was to go wrong.

In about three and a half weeks I will get another ultra sound to see if the thrombosis has gone. If it has then I will be able to come off of the medication, I don't want to even think of the "if not" because I think it's going to be good news.

SIC Sursee Results

I didn't go to Sursee to watch the race yesterday so instead I stayed in Weinfelden and trained.

I didn't go for a number of reasons:
1. The van was full so we would have to take another vehicle.
2. If you are not racing it becomes a long drawn out day. They didn't end up arriving home until midnight.
3. I would have only seen the skaters pass by twice.
4. It was really hot so I would have been out in the sun all day.
5. I was able to get a good training session in today because I was fresh.

Results

Womens Top 10
1. Alexandra Vivas (Bont Wheels)
2. Tina Struver
3. Tamara Llorens (Bont Wheels)
4. Kelly Martinez (Bont Wheels)
5. Andrea Hartichelar
6. Katja Ulbrich
7. Romy Munoz
8. Nadine Gloor
9. Karin Widmer
10. Flurina Heim

Womens Podium
Nadine Gloor (in place of Tina Struver), Alexandra Vivas & Tamara Llorens
Photo - Niki Neck

Mens Top 10
1. Janick Schalch
2. Victor Wilking
3. Alfredo Leon (Bont South America)
4. Stefano Galliazzo
5. Nicolas Iten
6. Severin Widmer
7. Stefano Chinaglia
8. Kalon Dobbin
9. Felix Rijhnen
10. Mathieu Grandgirard

Mens Podium
Photo - Niki Neck

SIC Sursee

This Saturday the second Swiss Inline Cup is being held in Sursee. There is also a World Inline Cup race on in Incheon, Korea on Sunday. I won't be racing as I'm not back on my skates yet but the rest of the Bont team will be racing in Sursee.

The men's race starts at 5.40pm and the women start 3 minutes after them. They will complete two 21km laps of the lake and then the only part of the course that has changed from last year is the finish.

The weather forecast for Sursee is looking good with a high of around 26 degrees.

Even though this is a beautiful race I'm not too sad to be missing it because I have bad memories from last year. This was the race I broke my jaw in so it's not beautiful skating for 27 km with a broken jaw and split chin.

Sursee

Photo - swiss-inline-cup.ch

SIC Mels/Heidiland Results

The Bont Wheels Team are in the lead for the team overall after the first race with Kelly Martinez finishing 2nd, Tamara Llorens 7th and Alexandra Vivas 8th.

Womens Top 10

1. Baena Cecilia  
2. Martinez Kelly (BONT Wheels Team) 
3. Ponzetti Cinzia
4. Turchiarelli Giovanna
5. Hartichelar Andrea
6. Strüver Tina 
7. Llorens Tamara (BONT Wheels Team)  
8. Vivas Alexandra (BONT Wheels Team)  
9. Ghezzi Laura 
10.Gloor Nadine

Mens Top 10

1. Arlidge Scott (ZEPTO)
2. Rosero Diego 
3. Diaz Granados Christian 
4. Saggiorato Luca 
5. Tobon Juan Nayib (ZEPTO)
6. Zangarini Francesco 
7. Galliazzo Stefano 
8. Iten Nicolas 
9. Presti Massimiliano
10.Francolini Fabio

SIC Mels/Heidiland

The first Swiss Inline Cup race of the season starts today at 5.30pm. Heidiland is a new event for the Swiss Inline Cup so it will be interesting to see the new course. Tamara Llorens, Kelly Martinez and Alexandra Vivas will be racing today for the team and I will be going but just as a spectator.

There has been a lot of talk about the weather forecast and the possibility of rain but the weather looks to be clearing, but we will have to wait and see.

Here is an article that featured in the Timaru Herald today about the upcoming South Canterbury Sports Awards. There are two skaters from the South Canterbury Club nominated, myself and Dahna Penty in the junior category.

Top sports stars battle for award

By STU PIDDINGTON - The Timaru Herald

The annual South Canterbury Sports Awards promise to be an intriguing night on Friday with world-class competitors vying for the main title.

The 12 nominated for the top award will not be easy to separate, with many having national honours and success at international level.

Marc Ryan's Olympic bronze medal in the individual pursuit at Beijing will be hard to beat.

He does, however, have hot competition from shooter Natalie Rooney, who took out the World "Down the Line" Championships in Ireland; and Nicole Begg, who won two silver medals at the World Inline Championships. Begg also finished second overall in the World Inline Cup marathon series.

Others nominated include national rally champion Hayden Paddon, New Zealand powerlifting representative Natasha Armstrong, New Zealand's blade shearer representative at the world championships William Michelle and New Zealand Heartland XV player Eric Smith.

National rowing under-21 quad titleholder Andrew Darling, footballer Kara Wilson, New Zealand track walk champion Nathaniel Shaw, White Ferns squad member Rowan Milburn and hockey player Amber Boyce are also in the running.

Michelle is the oldest nominated at 51 while the youngest is 18-year-old Wilson.

Young Sportsperson of the Year will also be a hotly contested award with eight of the 14 nominees having represented New Zealand and most of the rest having national titles.

Among the favourites are New Zealand Schools halfback Nick Annear, New Zealand tennis representative Emily Fanning, emerging junior Tall Fern Dallas Frederikson, along with New Zealand rowing representative Fin Scott and walking exponent Daniel Lord.

With each sport allowed to nominate only one person, Stephen Burt, who rowed at the World Junior Rowing Championships, missed out to Fin Scott.

Athlete Tom Walsh, who qualified for the World Junior Athletics Championships and broke both the under-16 discus and shotput records this season, missed out in favour of Daniel Lord.

Both could have been strong contenders to take out the young sportsperson title.

The Herald understands Sport South Canterbury is looking at allowing sports associations to nominate more than one athlete if they have two or more that have appeared internationally.

Others nominated in the Young Sportsperson of the Year category are New Zealand cyclist Tim Daly, national under-19 marathon mountainbike champion Rachel Richards and New Zealand secondary schools netball trialist Kelsi Patterson.

Joining them are New Zealand skier Tim Bowman, nationally ranked swimmer Daniel Hickey, football talent Amber Mulhall-Larsen, cricketer Tom Walsh, under-20 national bowls champion Sam Morton and national inline track and bank skating champion Dahna Penty.

The teams title looks to be between Timaru Rowing Club's men's club eight and Netball South Canterbury's under-19 team.

Coach of the Year will again be another fiercely competed category.

Basketball's Sean Fuller, rowing's Dan Kelly, powerlifting's Brian Armstrong and athletics coach Don Garland have all coached at elite levels overseas.

Jonathan Nelson is the only nominee in the Sportsperson with Disability category, so he will retain his title from last year.

The awards evening will feature a special award for a "homegrown" talent that has featured on the international stage.

The guest speakers for the night are twice Olympic double sculls champions Georgina Earl and Caroline Evers-Swindell.

The twin sisters beat their German rivals by one-hundredth of a second in Beijing to claim their second gold and have since retired.

Happy Mothers Day

Mum and I in 1987

21 years later


HAPPY MOTHERS DAY

Unive Skate Off Senior Ladies Elimination

The Skating Sisters Blog has video from some of the racing at the Unive Skate Off in Heerde last weekend. Here is the video from the Senior Ladies 10km track elimination.

Things are starting to look brighter.

Yesterday I went to St Gallen to see Dr Pierre Hofer who is one of the best orthopedic surgeons in Switzerland and also involved in sports medicine. He gave me a new brace for my foot which hospitals don't stock. I have to wear the brace for 4 weeks and keep it on even when I sleep. With a bit of a stretch the brace can fit into shoes so now I can actually walk and exercise as long as I am in a controlled environment. I should be back on my skates training in about 4 weeks. He said I could try skate a little after three weeks but just basic skating and not on edges. I'm not sure when I will be able to race though because there is always a risk with the medication I am on for the thrombosis. You never know whats going to happen in the races and you can't control the environment so if I was to crash and cut myself I could loose a lot of blood very quickly.

Tomorrow I will have my blood checked and if it is ok I will be able to come off of the injections. I am getting those twice a day at the moment so I have little bruises all over my legs from where I have been injected.

Things are looking brighter though each day and this morning I was able to do some training on the stationary bike.

It just keeps getting more complicated.

When I was at the hospital on Sunday the doctor gave me medication to prevent blood clots (thrombosis) as there could be a risk. But a blood clot wasn't likely to occur with the medication I had been given. Yesterday my calf started to feel tender and when thrombosis occurs it usually begins in the calf. Even though the pain wasn't bad and I didn't think it was a blood clot I thought it's better to be safe than sorry and just go to the hospital and get it checked.

So at midnight Wayne drove me to the hospital which is about 20 minutes away. A doctor took a look at my calf and said it wasn't likely to be a blood clot because my calf was hardly swollen. But the only way they could tell was to do an ultrasound. So I ended up leaving the hospital at 2 am and the doctor made an appointment for me this morning at 9 am to get an ultrasound.

The verdict is I have a small blood clot (thrombosis) in my left calf. Seeing I was already on the medication to prevent blood clots the only thing they could do is up the dosage. So for 3 days I have to have an injection twice a day so that means two trips a day to the doctors clinic. I have been put on medication which I must take for at least 3 months but it will slowly start coming down in dosage. I am also going to have to get regular blood checks for a while.

The doctors also took another look at my foot while I was there and seem to think that I have not torn just one of my ligaments but two.

Tomorrow morning I have an appointment in St Gallen which is about 45 minutes away. I will see a specialist who is considered one of the best in Switzerland. I am going to be in good hands as he has been involved with top athletes and also skating so he understands the movements skating involves. Tomorrow I should have a more realistic time line.

Another year & another bad crash.

On the weekend we raced at the Unive Skate Off in Heerde, Holland. The racing on Friday at the track started off great with Kelly winning the 10km elimination and myself coming in second. The next night we raced in the points race which was changed from a 5km to a 10km due to the weather. We were confident and could have taken the first three places but with three laps to go that all changed. I was well ahead on points and was about to come around to win some more when a skater tried to pass Kelly on the inside of the corner causing her to slide out and fall. I fell over Kelly and went index finger first into the barrier and somehow my left foot must have twisted or gone in a different direction. I got up as there were only three laps to go and tried to skate but I couldn't but any pressure on my left foot. I hobbled around and finished the race because no officials were pulling me off. Then only to loose all my points because I was lapped by the lead skaters on their last lap.

I left the track after the race and went to a hospital in the nearest city. I had x-rays taken of my ankle and finger. The results back were that my index finger on my right hand was broken and that there was no fracture in my ankle. The doctors didn't really know what was wrong with my ankle but just sent me home with a compression bandage around it. The doctor said it could be a little ligament damage but nothing too major and in a week or two I should start coming right. I arrived back at the track and everyone had gone, there was just my team waiting for me and a few organizers left. We drove back to Switzerland over night and arrived back to our base in Weinfelden at 6am.

After getting a few hours sleep in I woke up this morning and tried to put some pressure on my foot but the pain was unbearable. I took off the bandage and my foot was swollen and tender to touch. My finger also looked like a purple sausage. I went to the nearest hospital because I wanted to get some crutches to help me move around and get my ankle looked at again because it was getting worse.

The doctor had a good prod at my foot and finger while I was nearly jumping out of the wheel chair each time she touched a sore spot. She wasn't exactly gentle and my brother Wayne thought it was rather funny to watch. She decided to get some more x-rays of both my ankle and finger. The x-ray results were the same as the ones taken in Holland, broken finger but no fracture in my ankle.

The head doctor then came and took a look and done all sorts of things to my foot and ankle. The verdict is I have a torn ligament in my left foot along with some other strained ligaments. I have a brace on my leg to stabilize my foot at the moment and can't walk or put pressure on it. The healing time can vary and the doctor said anything from 4 to 6 weeks. In a week I should be able to move my foot up and down but not sideways or on edges so that rules out skating. I also have to be careful when I do get back on my skates that the ligaments are strong enough otherwise they could damage very easily again and I could have ongoing problems. Tomorrow I will go to the physio to see what he can do to help speed up the healing process. I may be able to start cycling on the stationary bike and swimming in a few weeks but I won't be able to skate for a while.

The doctor also decided to make a cast/brace for my finger because there is a fracture and also some ligament damage. I only have to wear it at night which was a sigh of relief because it's very awkward and I cant hold the crutches when it's on.

I didn't take a lot of skin off just a little off my knee and shoulder. I always seem to crash and hurt things that are complicated and don't heel quickly unlike grazed skin. It's frustrating because I felt so strong this year and had a really good base from my off season training in New Zealand. Then to start loosing that strength so easily after all that hard work is quiet disheartening. Last year I also had a nightmare at the start of the season when I broke my jaw. I lost a lot of strength and missed out on a lot of hard training but still managed to do well at the World Championships. I was looking forward to this year because I felt stronger than ever and was hoping to have a good season and a build up to the World Championships with no hiccups unlike last year. It's like I took two steps forward after last year but have now taken one back. But it's not over until the fat lady sings, and no one is singing yet.

On another note Kelly Martinez who also crashed is ok and has only lost a little bit of skin in various places. She managed to get up and keep skating without getting lapped and loosing her points so she also won the overall distance title. Alexandra Vivas our last member standing ended up coming through for our team and winning the points race. We were unable to compete in the Skate Off though which was a shame.

World on Wheels, Oldebroek

Last night we raced at Oldebroek and it was another World on Wheels race which was about 30km. It was a rough circuit with a couple of corners and it was about 1km per lap. Elma de Vries broke away after a few laps and I ended up going with her. The last lap she led into the final corner and I timed my run a little to late so I didn't have enough speed to cover the extra distance on the final straight which was curved. Alexandra won the bunch sprint and the other girls finished strong with Kelly 4th and Tamara 6th.

Today and tomorrow we are racing at Heerde on the bank track. Tamara will not be skating as she has an injury from the rain race in Rennes. No one from our team will contest the 300 meter time trial at Heerde today. The course in Rennes was very slippery in the rain so everyone's muscles are feeling strained and have not had time to recover as we have been traveling and racing.