Monday, March 22, 2010

Video of Shane Dobbin thanks to KNSB.tv

Written by T Dobbin
Check out the great interview and video footage of Shane Dobbin yesterday in Thialf after his 10,000 meter race. http://www.knsb.nl/topsport/knsb-tv/item/19344/

It can also be viewed on pureskatingnews known as Cado Motus, Shane's inline sponsor: http://www.pureskatingnews.com/2010/03/shane-dobbin-after-wc-allround-video.html

Day Three Of The ISU World All-Round in Heerenveen

Written by T Dobbin
The third and final day of the ISU World All-Round is over with the men's 10,000 meter being the last and final race. With the new rules to qualify to skate the final event the 10,000 meter, Shane Dobbin was able to take to the start in this final race. Finally on the last day the ice conditions were back to normal. The stadium was still full of spectators and speed skating fans and as the weather forecast was much better yesterday without rain, it allowed the ice to set much better after the ice cleaning.

Shane was paired with Dutch skater Wouter Olde Heuvel in the second pair. Shane skated a very strong, consistent race throughout each and every lap of his 10,000 meter finishing with a new personal best time of 13:30,30 setting a new National Record for New Zealand, his eighth National Record broken this season. Shane ended up finishing in 7th place in the 10,000 meter which is an outstanding performance, especially this late in season.

Shane's lap times were as follows:
1. 400m 35.32 (35.3)
2. 800m 1:06.78 (31.4)
3. 1200m 1:39.08 (32.3)
4. 1600m 2:11.36 (32.2)
5. 2000m 2:43.75 (32.3)
6. 2400m 3:15.99 (32.2)
7. 2800m 3:48.29 (32.3)
8. 3200m 4:20.71 (32.4)
9. 3600m 4:53.16 (32.4)
10. 4000m 5:26.28 (33.1)
11. 4400m 5:58.65 (32.3)
12. 4800m 6:31.03 (32.3)
13. 5200m 7:03.20 (32.1)
14. 5600m 7:35.38 (32.1)
15. 6000m 8:07.90 (32.5)
16. 6400m 8:40.37 (32.4)
17. 6800m 9:12.85 (32.4)
18. 7200m 9:45.27 (32.4)
19. 7600m 10:17.98 (32.7)
20. 8000m 10:50.02 (32.0)
21. 8400m 11:22.00 (31.9)
22. 8800m 11:54.08 (32.0)
23. 9200m 12:26.21 (32.1)
24. 9600m 12:58.18 (31.9)
25. 10000m 13:30.30 (32.1)

"It's a great way to finish the season with a new personal best time and National record. I'm happy with the way I skated and have more motivation now to go home and train hard during the off-season so that i can come back next winter on the ice in better shape than I ever have".

Full results are as follows:
1 Sven Kramer NED 12:57.97
2 Håvard Bøkko NOR 13:12.13
3 Ted-Jan Bloemen NED 13:13.56
4 Jonathan Kuck USA 13:15.62
5 Sverre Haugli NOR 13:18.39
6 Jan Blokhuijsen NED 13:25.97
7 Shane Dobbin NZL 13:30.30
8 Wouter Olde Heuvel NED 13:32.27
9 Trevor Marsicano USA 13:38.11
10 Lucas Makowsky CAN 13:54.63
11 Matteo Anesi ITA 14:08.40
12 Konrad Niedzwiedzki POL 14:10.78

Now it's time for Shane to take a rest and travel back home to enjoy a few weeks of "Normal Life" before getting into his off-season training and preparation for next winter.

Shane ended up finishing in 12th overall in his first ISU World All-Round competition. For full results go to: http://www.knsb.nl/wk/allround/uitslagen-lotingen-en-meeschrijflijsten/

All photos of Shane are at: http://www.desgphoto.com/desgphoto/gallery/index.php?p=athlet&id=2687&langswitch_lang=en

Thank you everyone for their support throughout the season. We look forward to the next four years and hope that everyone continues to follow the progress. Keep posted throughout the winter for news and updates on Shane's off-season training and preparation for next winter.

Sunday, March 21, 2010

Second Day at the ISU World All-Round

Written by T Dobbin
With the second day of the ISU World All-Round completed and just one day to go, the men only had one event yesterday which was the 1500 meters. Once again the crowds in Thialf stadium didn't disappoint. The stadium was packed again with 12,000 people wearing orange supporting their Dutch speed skating stars. The ice wasn't in any better condition on day two as promised. There was bubbles, tyre marks and streak lines that covered the surface. It's very disappointed for everyone to finish the season in the famous Thialf ice rink with such poor ice conditions.

However, even with the ice conditions as they were, American Jonathan Kuck managed to skate a very spectacular 1500 meter setting a new personal best time to win the 1500 meter event in Thialf with a time of 1.45,36 over Canadian Lucas Makowsky in a time 1.46,15 finishing second.

Shane was in the fourth pair with Italian Luca Stefani starting on the inner lane. Shane's 1500 meter was not quite his best, however it was satisfying as he took four seconds off his last 1500 meter set in Thialf last winter.

"The 1500 meter is hard event to do when you don't train for this type of race. It's something that I want to work on during the off season and hopefully race in the World Cups next winter and be much better at".

Shane's lap times are below:
1. 300m 25.56 (25.5)
2. 700m 52.80 (27.2)
3. 1100m 1:21.32 (28.5)
4. 1500m 1:51.20 (29.8)

With the new qualification rules to be able to skate the final event at the World All-Round, Shane managed to skate a fast enough 5,000 meter on Friday and place high enough to confirm a start in the 10,000 meter today. Shane is paired with Dutch skater Wouter Olde Heuvel starting in the second pair on the outer lane. It's a great way to finish the season skating getting another chance to race the 10,000 meter event which is hard to come by, and after missing out on racing the 10,000 meter at the Olympics.

"It's probably by favourite event right now because after only being on the ice for two and half years I'm sure suited to the longer style races".

The pairs for the 10,000 meter are as follows:

Pair 1 - Matteo Anesi ITA (PB 14:01.78) / Konrad Niedzwiedzki POL (PB 13:51.95)
Pair 2 - Wouter Olde Heuvel NED (PB 13:17.08) / Shane Dobbin NZL (PB 13:34.03)
Pair 3 - Sverre Haugli NOR (PB 13:12.75) / Jan Blokhuijsen NED (PB 13:31.11)
Pair 4 - Trevor Marsicano USA (PB 13:21.06) / Lucas Makowsky CAN (PB 13:21.93)
Pair 5 - Sven Kramer NED (PB 12:41.69) / Håvard Bøkko NOR (PB 13:00.65)
Pair 6 - Ted-Jan Bloemen NED (PB 13:11.79) / Jonathan Kuck USA (PB 13:30.14)

For live results go to: http://www.knsb.nl/wk/english/live-results/ Or get all the info from the World All-Round at http://www.knsb.nl/wk/english/

It's once again on Eurosport today however, not live just showing highlights later this evening.

Photos of Shane can be viewed at : http://www.desgphoto.com/desgphoto/gallery/index.php?p=athlet&id=2687

Saturday, March 20, 2010

First Day Of The World All-Round

Written by T Dobbin
Yesterday was the first day of the ISU World All-Round competition in the famous Thialf ice rink in Heerenveen. The stadium was completely full with 12,000 spectators and seas of orange. The crowd was spectacular and the cheers could be heard throughout many of the surrounding roads in Heerenveen. The atmosphere in Thialf was by far some of the best that we have seen in our speed skating experience.

The first event of the day was the men's 500 meter sprint. Shane was paired in the fourth pair with German Marco Weber. Shane opened in a 11.04 second 100 meter but had the advantage of coming out of the first corner with someone to chase. Shane skated a time of 38.41 seconds which placed Shane in 22nd position after the first event.

There was huge problems with the ice again this weekend and the Zamboni's left tyre tracks in the ice and huge Zamboni streaks around the track. When the 5,000 meter event started the humidity in the ice rink was at 32%, when the final pairs were skating the humidity got up to 50% which is just about unheard of in ice skating. Apologies were made at the team leaders meeting, explaining to the coaches that during the 5,000 meter ice cleanings thousands of people would come in and out of the ice rink leaving the doors open and somehow had set off the fire alarm doors which automatically open and stay opened until the alarm is turned off. It was poring with rain outside yesterday and with the doors open for this long it had caused a problem inside with the air pressure and the conditions of the ice. The ice makers have assured all the coaches that the conditions today would be 100% better, and let's hope so for the skaters sake.

However, Shane skated a very strong race to finish his 5,000 meter season and his first in long track. It was second event of the day and Shane was paired with Olympic Champion Sven Kramer in the 10th pair. It was an honour to be the same pair as Sven Kramer especially in front of his home town croud with the roar coming out of Thialf. It was probably one of his best races of the season technically skating a very flat race throughout each lap and his fastest opening lap ever. Shane managed to finish with a top ten finish in this event finishing in 9th place and beat his time set in the Heerenveen World Cup in November of last year. See below Shane's lap times for the 5,000 meter.

Shane Dobbin
1. 200m 18.95 (18.9)
2. 600m 48.60 (29.6)
3. 1000m 1:19.40 (30.8)
4. 1400m 1:50.49 (31.0)
5. 1800m 2:21.29 (30.8)
6. 2200m 2:52.04 (30.7)
7. 2600m 3:23.25 (31.2)
8. 3000m 3:54.43 (31.1)
9. 3400m 4:25.40 (30.9)
10. 3800m 4:56.66 (31.2)
11. 4200m 5:28.06 (31.4)
12. 4600m 5:59.34 (31.2)
13. 5000m 6:30.64(31.3)

The top 15 from the 5,000 meter is as follows:
1 Sven Kramer NED 6:19.63
2 Håvard Bøkko NOR 6:21.08
3 Ted-Jan Bloemen NED 6:23.41
4 Jonathan Kuck USA 6:23.47
5 Ivan Skobrev RUS 6:23.88
6 Sverre Haugli NOR 6:26.03
7 Jan Blokhuijsen NED 6:27.68
8 Wouter Olde Heuvel NED 6:29.45
9 Shane Dobbin NZL 6:30.64
10 Trevor Marsicano USA 6:32.79
11 Lucas Makowsky CAN 6:35.06
12 Marco Weber GER 6:36.88
13 Hiroki Hirako JPN 6:36.94
14 Patrick Beckert GER 6:37.05
15 Johan Röjler SWE 6:41.14

For full results go to: http://www.knsb.nl/wk/english/results-draws-and-write-down-lists/

Or to watch today's events live on the internet go to: http://www.knsb.nl/wk/english/live-results/

Don't forget if you have Eurosport today's events will be shown tomorrow and tomorrow is once again shown live.

Today's only event for the men is the 1500 meter. Shane is in pair number four with Italian Luca Stefani starting on the inner lane. The first competition day for the ladies is today starting with the 500 meter and their 3,000 meter. After the men's 1500 meter we will know if 9th place in the 5,000 meter will qualify him for the 10,000 meter which is raced tomorrow afternoon.

For Photots go to: http://www.desgphoto.com/desgphoto/gallery/index.php?p=athlet&id=2687&langswitch_lang=en

Friday, March 19, 2010

WK All-Round in Heerenveen

Written by T Dobbin
Tomorrow is the first day of the World All-Round competition held in Thialf stadium in Heerenveen. It's only the men that skate tomorrow with the first two events of four to get underway at 16.30 with the 500 meter followed by the 5,000 meters. After Shane set his new personal best time in the World Cup in Salt Lake City in December of 2009 for the 5,000 meter, this put Shane in the third and final grouping to determine the pairs for tomorrow.

With being int he final grouping, the draw was completed tonight and Shane will be skating tomorrow the 5,000 meter with Olympic Champion Sven Kramer from the Netherlands. They are paired together in pair number 10 out of 12 with Shane starting on the inner lane. See below the list of pairs for the 5,000 meter.

Pair Number 1 - Jeff Kitura CAN / Justin Warsylewicz CAN
Pair Number 2 - 24 Joel Eriksson SWE / Zbigniew Brodka POL
Pair Number 3 - Matteo Anesi ITA / Joshua Lose AUS
Pair Number 4 - Konrad Niedzwiedzki POL / Ted-Jan Bloemen NED
Pair Number 5 - Marco Weber GER / Lucas Makowsky CAN
Pair Number 6 - Mathieu Giroux CAN / Jonathan Kuck USA
Pair Number 7 - Hiroki Hirako JPN / Luca Stefani ITA
Pair Number 8 - Trevor Marsicano USA / Wouter Olde Heuvel NED
Pair Number 9 - Johan Röjler SWE / Håvard Bøkko NOR
Pair Number 10 - Shane Dobbin NZL / Sven Kramer NED
Pair Number 11 - Patrick Beckert GER / Ivan Skobrev RUS
Pair Number 12 - Jan Blokhuijsen NED / Sverre Haugli NOR

In the 500 meter Shane is paired with German Marco Weber in pair number four. All results will be live on http://www.knsb.nl/wk/english/live-results/ as well as all results, drawings and updates through the weekend. http://www.knsb.nl/wk/

For those countries that have eurosport, the World All-Round Championships will be on tomorrow live as well as on Sunday, http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/speed-skating/

It's Shane first World All-Round Championships and it's going to be good experience and a chance to finish the 2009-2010 ice season on a high. Keep posted for results.

Tuesday, March 16, 2010

Final Week Of Training For The 2009-2010 Ice Season

Written by T Dobbin
With only one competition remaining for the 2009-2010 ice season this weekend in Thialf, Heerenveen it's Shane's final week of training for this winter. After this weekend is over it will be time to hang up the ice skates until later in the year when Shane returns to a new training venue and city for next winter. After this weekend Shane will take a short break from training and head back home at the end of March. After his break Shane will be back into training and be starting to prepare for next winter.

Friday afternoon is the first day of racing at the ISU World All-Round Championships. The first event of the day for Shane is the 500 meter sprint. Having only ever skated two previous 500 meter races it's not one of Shane's best distances as yet. Shane's best 500 meter time is 38.20 seconds set earlier this year in Calgary, Canada. The second distance of the day on Friday is the 5,000 meter in which Shane will be hoping the ice is much better than the conditions last weekend and hopes to beat his time set then. To win the World All-Round title, you have be the best skater throughout all distances over the weekend.

See below the race schedule for this weekend.

Friday 19th March 2010 - Start time 16.30
Men's 500 meter
Men's 5,000 meter

Saturday 20th March 2010 - Start time 14.00
Ladies 500 meter
Men's 1,500 meter
Ladies 3,000 meter

Sunday 21st March 2010 - Start time 13.00
Ladies 1,500 meter
Men's 10,000 meter
Ladies 5,000 meter

In both the men's 10,000 meter and ladies 5,000 meter, only the top twelve skaters in the All-Round overall take to the start in these final distances of the weekend. In total there will be 24 skaters racing the All-Round Championships consisting of 15 from the Europe, two from Asia and finally seven from the North America and Oceania region. Keep posted for results from Shane's first World All-Round Championships.

Sunday, March 14, 2010

World Cup Finale, Heerenveen

Written by T Dobbin
In Thialf the stadium was full of Dutch supporters, supporting all the athletes at the World Cup Finale yesterday. The stadium can hold up to 12,000 spectators and it was close to full yesterday with 10,000 people. It made for a fantastic atmosphere in Thialf and gave all the athletes a great feeling.

Shane raced the 5,000 meter yesterday which was the last event of the day. He stepped on the ice right after the ice preparation and was in the fifth pair with Norwegian Henrik Christiansen. When both skaters stepped on the line for the start the ice was sill full of water and the Zamboni had left type tracks and marks across the ice leaving it in probably some of the worst ice seen in Thialf. Shane tweeted after the race “It was the worst ice EVER! I thought I was swimming with all the water on the surface….. But what a great crowd and atmosphere”. With a false start to delay the start a few extra minutes, it didn’t seem like anything was to help the ice conditions for the second half of the 5,000 meters.

It’s hard to find the motivation after a long ice season and the Olympics. Everyone looked tired and ready to hang up their skates for the season. However, Shane managed to skate an average race, he said “it wasn’t great but it wasn’t so bad either, especially at this time of the year”. Shane ended up just missing out a top ten finish and finished in 11th place 0.7 seconds behind 10th and just outside the "bubble". See below Shane’s lap times.

Shane Dobbin NZL 6:33.85
1. 200m 19.43 (19.4)
2. 600m 49.85 (30.4)
3. 1000m 1:21.02 (31.1)
4. 1400m 1:51.85 (30.8)
5. 1800m 2:22.40 (30.5)
6. 2200m 2:53.04 (30.6)
7. 2600m 3:23.82 (30.7)
8. 3000m 3:54.71 (30.8)
9. 3400m 4:25.78 (31.0)
10. 3800m 4:57.25 (31.4)
11. 4200m 5:29.11 (31.8)
12. 4600m 6:01.47 (32.3)
13. 5000m 6:33.85 (32.3)

Full results:
1st Håvard Bøkko NOR - 6:20.52
2nd Sverre Haugli NOR - 6:21.49 (+ 00.97)
3rd Ivan Skobrev RUS - 6:23.24 (+02.72)
4th Jan Blokhuijsen NED - 6:26.24 (+05.72)
5th Wouter Olde Heuvel NED - 6:26.66 (+ 06.14)
6th Henrik Christiansen NOR - 45 6:28.45 (+ 07.93)
7th Øystein Grødum NOR - 6:29.35 (+08.83)
8th Bob de Jong NED - 6:29.45 (+08.93)
9th Enrico Fabris ITA - 6:32.33 (+11.81)
10th Carl Verheijen NED - 6:33.14 (+12.62)
11th Shane Dobbin NZL - 6:33.85 (+13.33)
12th Slawomir Chmura POL - 6:34.31 (+13.79)
13th Lucas Makowsky CAN - 6:35.93 (+15.41)
14th Marco Weber GER - 6:38.46 (+17.94)
15th Hiroki Hirako JPN - 6:38.72 (+18.20)
16th Patrick Beckert GER - 6:42.89 (+ 22.37)

The World Cup season is now over and Shane ended up finishing in 15th place in the World Cup Ranking for the 5,000 meter It’s a great achievement in Shane’s first year of long track racing, when at the start of the season he was only allowed to start in two World Cups due to his commitments with his marathon team. Shane’s results for the 2009-2010 season were in Berlin he finished 2nd in B division which would have been 9th in A division, Heerenveen finishing 13th, in Norway a crash in the 10,000m followed by the disqualification gave him no overall points in the World cup Ranking and missing his chance to skate the 10,000 meter in Vancouver. In Calgary Shane finished 10th followed by an 11th in Salt Lake City. At the Olympics Shane finished a disappointed 17th and finally another 11th place in the World Cup Finale to wrap up his first Long Track season. For photos from the 2009-2010 long track season of Shane Dobbin go to http://www.desgphoto.com/desgphoto/gallery/index.php?p=athlet&id=2687

Next weekend is the World All-Round Championships also in Thialf, Heerenveen. It’s a sold out crowd and it’s going to be great experience for Shane and a great event to watch. For full results from the World Cup and the World Cup Ranking go to: http://www.knsb.nl/wc/english/results/

Saturday, March 13, 2010

ISU World Cup Finale

Written by T Dobbin
Throughout this weekend is the ISU World Finale and the final event for most skaters this season. It has been pretty tough for just about everyone to come back to Europe after the Olympics and have more races on their calendar before they can hang their skates up for a while and enjoy the off season.

Today is the 5,000m finale in which Shane Dobbin will be taking the start line. He is currently ranked in 14th in the overall and in the World Cup Finale only the top 24 athletes in the ISU World ranking are allowed to start. Shane Dobbin is paired with Norwegian, Henrik Christiansen in pair number six.

For Live results go to: http://www.knsb.nl/wc/english/

Keep posted later today for the results.

Tuesday, March 2, 2010

Update after The Games

Written by T Dobbin
The Olympics are over and it's time for things to get back to somewhat "normal" for Shane Dobbin after such a busy Winter of ice. Although the season isn't over yet with two weekends left on the race calendar. First is the weekend of the 13th and 14th of March with the World Cup Finale held in Heerenveen. And the second is the World All-Round Championships on the 19th, 20th and 21st of March also in Heerenveen.

It was a great experience for Shane to race and be in Vancouver. There were many great experiences he had including watching a hockey game (Russia v's Latvia) from a corporate box, as you can see the view was amazing!

Shane ended up finishing a respectable 17th in Vancouver in the 5,000m race, his one and only event and these games after unfortunately missing out on the qualification for the 10,000m in Hamar, Norway. Shane, always wanting to do better has set his focus over the next four years on making it to Sochi, Russia for the 22nd Olympic Games in 2014, as well as trying to give all he has over the next four years to finish his sporting career on the highest possible level.

After the final two events in Heereveen, Netherlands Shane is heading back to the Oceania region to train during the off-season before heading to a new training venue and city in the near future for the ice seasons to come.

Shane was very disappointed having to leave the inline team of Cado Motus this Summer but knew that if he didn't take a break and a change soon then he might not be mentally at his best on the sport he is now focused on. For Shanes full interview on the Cado Motus Pure Skating website go to: http://www.pureskatingnews.com/2010/03/shane-dobbins-olympic-review.html

Keep posted over the next few weeks with results and photos from the upcoming World Cup and World All-Round competitions.