ISU World Cup Heerenveen

Written by T Dobbin

This weekend was the second ISU World Cup for the 2009-2010 Winter held in Heerenveen, Netherlands. Shane decided on Friday that he would not take part in the 1500 meter on Friday morning and would only take part in the 5000 meter on Saturday afternoon.

With Shane's previous sponsor going bankrupt, last week he was able to secure some new sponsors to help him throughout this winter. Shane found sponsors from the marketing company Sport Navigator http://www.sportnavigator.nl taking up five out of the eight logos on Shane's uniform with logos from Kia Motors, Clafis Engineering and G4S. We are hoping to finalize the remaining three logos positions very soon!

After finishing second in Berlin, Shane moved into A grade and 14th in the ISU World Cup 5km overall. Heerenveen would be his first ever start in the A grade competition which is live on television here in the Netherlands. Shane was set to start in the fourth pair with Marco Weber from Germany starting on the inner lane.

After a hard few weeks and continuing the hard training this week, Shane knew his legs weren't would not be completely prepared for the race on Saturday. However, Shane set his lap times that he felt he would be able to hold throughout the race and ended up with the finishing time that he predicted. See below the race lap times:

200m - 19.57 (19.5)
600m - 50.35 (30.7)
1000m - 1:20.73 (30.3)
1400m - 1:51.91 (31.1)
1800m - 2:23.22 (31.3)
2200m - 2:54.00 (30.7)
2600m - 3:24.52 (30.5)
3000m - 3:55.36 (30.8)
3400m - 4:26.54 (31.1)
3800m - 4:57.28 (30.7)
4200m - 5:28.23 (30.9)
4600m - 5:59.31 (31.0)
5000m - 6:30.90 (31.5)

Shane finished in 13th place in A grade which moves him up once place in the ISU World Cup overall for the 5km and is now currently in 13th place.

Next weekend is the one and only 10km World Cup race held in Hamar, Norway. Shane travels with his Coach Roy Dobbin Monday to Hamar where he will train and prepare for the 10km held on Sunday afternoon. Shane will once again start in the A grade in Hamar and hopes to have a successful weekend. With Hamar being the one and only 10km during these ISU World Cups before the Olympics, it's the only chance he has to qualify for the 10km at the 2010 Winter Olympics. The minimum qualifying time is 13.30 last year finishing 14th place at the World Single Distance Championships he hopes to have a good race and set a new personal best time hopefully under the minimum qualifying mark.

Keep posted for more updates this week and this weekend with results from Hamar.

For photos from Shanes 5km in Heerenveen please go to: http://www.desgphoto.com/desgphoto/gallery/index.php?p=event&id=171&day=2009-11-14&distance=6&division=9&gender=men