This morning both Shane Dobbin & Dj Nation got on the plane to fly to Salt Lake City for this weekend's North American & Oceania All-Round Championships. Both Shane & Dj have only skated the five kilometer in previous races having raced twice this winter. The 500 meter & the 1500 meter will be new distances for the boys so after Salt Lake they will both have times on the board in these distances. Dj Nation set a personal best time of 6:53 and Shane Dobbin set a personal best time of 6:37 in Thialf, Heerenveen in Novemeber. The competition starts on Saturday with the 500 meter and the 5000 meter. Followed by Sunday's races of the 1500 meter and the 10,000 meter.
Other big news in Netherlands today is the confirmation of the Natural Ice National Championships for the Netherlands which is going to be held on Thursday at 13:00. The National Championships is for Dutch Skaters only racing for the rights to wear their Natural Colours. It is live on television in the Netherlands and will be held on a frozen lake close to Lelystad. The Nationals will be the day after the next Prestige Race in Biddinghuizen which is held on Wednesday but the organisation has changed the distance from 75km to 50km. Some skaters will be sitting out of the Prestige Race to save themselves for the Nationals. It will be a great lift to the sport of Speed Skating here in Netherlands.
It will be a great week of ice skating so stay tuned!
