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/
