News Archive 2007 to 2009

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British Short Track Championships - 28th & 29th March 2009

On Saturday 28th & Sunday 29th March the British Short Track Championships were held at the National Ice Centre in Nottingham.

Aldwych skaters featured in the medals in several categories, with Sarah Lindsay being first placed in the Senior Ladies category, winning all 3 distances.  Gerard Williams was fifth in the Senior Men category, and took first place in the 3000M Super Final. The Aldwych relay team took third place in the 5000M relay final.

Hew Williams was third in the Junior Men category, and Helen Clark was third in the Junior Ladies category.

Aydin Djemal was first & Anthony Cast was third in the Pee Wee boys category.

Several new PBs were achieved over the 2 days.

Full times and results can be found on the Shorttrackonline web site.

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Tom Laming Mile - 14th March 2009

On Saturday March 14th at Guildford Aldwych Speed Club ran the second annual competition for the Tom Laming Mile. This was the club's final open competition of the 2008 - 2009 competition season, and was well attended by skaters.

The Tom Laming mile itself was won again by Ian Upcott in a new personal best time of 2:35.29, taking nearly 20 seconds off his previous time for this distance. Second place was taken by Mark Worth of Nottingham, with third & fourth places being taken respectively by Peter Armstrong & Hew Williams of Aldwych, both achieving new PB's for the distance. In addition new personal best times were achieved by club members Bethan Lindsay, Jeyda Djemal, Anthony Cast, Aydin Djemal, Yoo-An An, Jimmy Ingram, Jack Woodstock, Shae Ingram, Ellen Carter & Luke Carter.

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World Short Track Championships - 6th - 8th March 2009

At the World Short Track Speed Skating Championships in Vienna, Austria Alwych Speed Club member Sarah Lindsay finished in 6th place in the 500M, reaching the semi finals.

In all there were over 160 skaters from 25 countries competing in the mens & ladies categories.

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Junior British Open - 28th & 29th December 2008

Aldwych skaters had a very successful time at the 20th Junior British Open, organised by the Nottingham Ice Racing Club & held at the National Ice Centre in Nottingham on 28th & 29th December 2008.

Hew Williams was first overall in the Junior A Men category and Sally Conway, Helen Clark and Aydin Djemal all finished third in their categories (Junior A Ladies, Junior B Ladies and Junior D Men respectively).

Aydin Djemal and Anthony Cast both skated personal best times along with Helen Clark who skated 3 personal best times over 500M & 1000M.

In the Junior D Men's Super Final Aydin finished 2^nd giving him third place overall in a time of 1.53.583 for the 1000M and Anthony finished 4^th in a time of 1.54.508 giving him 4th place overall.

In the Junior A Ladies Final over a distance of 1,500M Sally Conway finished 3^rd in a time of 2.59.059. giving her 3^rd place overall  and Helen Clark finished 4^th in the Junior B  Ladies Super Final, also over a distance of 1,500M, in a time of 2.51.601 giving her 3rd place overall.

Results are now available for download from the NIRC web site.

Full times can be found on the Shorttrackonline web site.

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Aldwych Centenary Dinner - 21st June 2008

On Saturday the 21st June the Aldwych Speed Club celebrated their 100 years, by holding a celebration dinner at the Winning Post in Twickenham, with over 150 members, friends and guests in attendance. It was a time of seeing old friends and renewing old acquaintances from years past, with past members and friends, coming to join in the celebrations from Birmingham, Scotland, Nottingham, Bristol, Ireland, Europe and as far away as New Zealand to name a few.

Old friends reminisced to nostalgic videos and photos of Aldwych members & events from the past to the present, being displayed on a large screen.

Among the honoured guests was the President of NISA Haig Oundjen and past President Miss Sally Anne Stapleford.

The President Haig Oundjen gave a speech congratulating the club on becoming 100 years old, saying how he felt the club and its members displayed a great since of being part of a family and he gave a special message from the President of the ISU Ottavio Cinquanta, congratulating the club for its valued contribution over the years, for the part it has played in the development and promotion of Short Track Speed Skating.

Congratulations must go to John Cosstick for all his hard work in organising this very successful dinner to celebrate the club's 100 Years. "Congratulations John"

Anybody wishing to purchase the Aldwych Centenary book in paperback (£15 + delivery charges) or hardback (£20 + delivery charges), click here to order.

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Nottingham Open - April 2008

A win and congratulations for Anthony Cast at the last race competition of the season at Nottingham's 60th celebrationary competition on Saturday 26th April. Anthony won his Junior Class for the Mabel Rook Trophy this gives the club a finish to the season on a high, and to see one of their future stars do well. There were also a few personal best for his team mates, this was shown by Troy Koolhoven in the 800m skating a 1.35.211 in the first round and in the final finishing on a 1.33.925. Full results can be found on Nottingham's website.

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Club Championships - April 2008

Aldwych ends the season in the Club Championships with a good entry where some of the skaters finished on a high with new PB's. The Aldwych Club Championships was run over 2 days on a point system. The winners were:

Masters: Gary Leighs
Senior Men: Gerard Williams
Senior Ladies: Vyta Krikunaite
Junior A: Hew Williams
Junior B Ladies: Margarita Onsinskav
Juvenile Boys: Simon Mattock
Juvenile Girles: Helen Clark
PeeWee 2 Boys:Aydin Djemal
PeeWee2 Girls: Bethan Lindsay

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British Open - March 2008

Aldwych skaters gave a good account of themselves at the British Championships held in Dundee Scotland on the 29th & 30th even though it was a low club entry as far as Aldwych was concerned, the overall entry was the highest the Championship had seen for many years. But the Aldwych gave a good account of themselves, bringing back a fistful of medals.

In the Pee Wee boys Aydin Djemal won the Bronze Medal also he produced 3 personal best times, Anthony Cast finished in 8th place again producing personal best times over all 3 distances. In the Junior Boys Ian Upcott defended his title winning all three distances for the Gold Medal, Hew Williams finished in 4th place. In the Ladies Sarah Lindsay won the ladies championship by winning all 3 distances and 2nd place went to Joanna Williams, with Jenny Buckley finishing in 5th place. In the seniors Gerard Williams finished in fourth place overall with a good performance in the 1500m giving him entry to the 3000m Super Final where he lapped several top skaters and managed to hold on to the lead until the very end with only Anthony Douglas passing him in the closing stages of the race giving him the second place points, placing him 4th overall in the Championships.

Lastly even though he did not win any medals credit must go to Mike Maynard in the 'Masters' event for pure grit and determination Mike skated 3 personal best times in the 500, 800,1000m in the largest entry for the Masters category, Mike finished 10th overall. Full results can be found on www.shorttrackonline.info

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Tom Laming Mile - March 2008

On Saturday 15th March we saw the first Tom Laming Mile take place at the Spectrum Guildford with all the first three places were taken by Aldwych, 1st Ian Upcott, 2nd Gerard Williams and 3rd place went to Hew Williams. the late Tom laming's wife Grace Laming kindly attended to present the prizes for this new event.

For more detailed results, click here.

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World Short Track Relay Championships - Gangneung, Korea

Great Britain win bronze in the World Short Track Relay Championships in Gangneung in Korea, in the semi-final the team was in a qualifying position, when they were impeded in the closing laps of the race and were advanced to the final. In the final Great Britain beat the USA into third place with Korea taking the Gold and Canada the Silver.

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Late news from World Cup Salt Lake City

Great Britain win Bronze medal in the Mens 5000m Relay setting a New British Record time of 6.52.540

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World Cup - Salt Lake City Utah - 10th February 2008

After results from last week records keep tumbling in Salt Lake City this week-end we saw no less than 3 new world records set with several skaters going under the old records In the Mens 500m Si-Bak Sung (KOR) set a new record of 41.051. In the Ladies 500m Meng Wang (CHN) set a new time of 43.216 breaking the record she set last week in Quebec.

In the 1500m a new world record was set by Yang Zhou (CHN) in a time of 2.16.729 no less than 3 other skaters in the race went under the old record. The overall placings for the British Skaters was not as good as last week, but they were also breaking records this week end Jon Ely set a new British recoed for 500m in a time of 41.364, Anthony Douglas set a new 1500m record of 2.14.789, and Tom Iveson set a new 1000m record of 1.26.030.

In the Ladies Elise Christie set a new record for 1500m 2.23.664. The top 10 placings was in the Mens category were the 500m(1) was Paul Worth finished in 6th place Jon Ely finished 10th, in the 500m(2) Jon Ely finished in 10th giving us 3 top ten places.

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North American World Cup - Québec City - January 2008

The GB team grabs 5 top ten places, with Sarah Lindsay (ALD) finishing in 6th place in the first of the North American World Cups in Québec City. Sarah has for most of the season been recovering from a back injury which Sarah seems to have recovered now after the Ladies success in the European Championships the World Cup is only Sarah's second competition this season.

The men continue to improve by making 4 top ten places with John Ely taking the Bronze medal in the 500m in a 41.879 (British Record to be ratified) to go with his Gold from last year, the winner of the 500m was Yoon-gy Kwak KOR 2nd Charles Hamlin Paul worth finished in 7th

In the 1000m Jon Ely finished 9th and Paul Stanley 10th and he also broke Nick Gooch's 1000m British Record in a time of 1.27.104 (to be ratified) which has stood for 8 years. They now move onto Salt Lake City Utah for the final World Cup of the season.

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Friesland Cup - 2008

The final Starclass competition (Friesland Cup) for 2007-08 took place on the week-end of the 23rd January in Leeuwarden in the north of Holland, giving 3rd place to Gerard Williams ALD in the Senior Men's StarClass competition overall, against the 1st Christoph Milz ECO GER and 2nd Torsten Kroger ETR GER.

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European Relay Champions

Great Britain Ladies become European Relay Championships this last weekend in a new British Record for the 3000m. in 4.23.172 the team was Sarah Lindsay(Aldwych), Elise Christie (Falkirk), Charlotte Gilmartin (Mohawks), Alex Whelbourne (Nottingham) and Joanna Williams (Aldwych).

In the mens category, Jon Ely won a Gold Medal in the 500m and in the 5000m relay final they took 2nd place coming away with a silver medal each the team members, Jon Ely(Mohawks), Paul Stanley (Mohawks), Tom Iveson (Mohawks) and Paul Worth (Nottingham).

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Junior World Championships in Balzano Itay - January 2008

Ian Upcott representing Great Britain finished in 20th Place overal in the Junior World Championships in Bolzano Itay on the 11th - 13th January. Ian was placed 25th in the 1500m with a seasons best time of 2.24.076, 11th in the 500m in another seasons best time of 43.476 and 25th in the 1000m. in 1.33.213

There was an entry in the mens category was 69 competitors from over 30 countries.Other skaters in the team were Jack Whelbourne finished 62nd overal In the Girls was Elise Christie who finished in the highest position of any member of the team in 6th place overal congratulations must go to Elise for winning a silver place medal in the 500m, Charlotte Gilmartin finished in 11th overal and Alex Whelbourne 39th. and in the relay the Girls got the Silver Medal in the 2000m relay.

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Olympic Candidates Trophy - 2007

In the Spisska Nova Ves we saw our only representative Ian Upcott competed against the best skaters from Eastern and Western Europe in the Olympic Candidates Trophy. Ian in this competition seemed to have technical problems with his blades and with the sub ZERO temperatures and this was inside the rink in am sure it was as cold or colder inside as it was outside (-6C to -8C degrees) did not help matters Ian finished in 9th place overall. Other GB team members skated well, full results can be seen on www.shorttrackonline.info

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Junior British Open - 2007

At the Junior British Open which took place in Nottingham on the 28th & 29th Dec saw Ian Upcott win the Junior A category with opposition from entries from clubs from 4 European Countries also in the Junior A's Hew Williams gave a good performance by reaching the Junior A super Final with Ian. In the Junior E's we saw the club's stars of the future also perform well with Ayndin Djemal and Anthony Cast finish 11th and 14th respectively ( total entry in Cat 21). It was a shame that there were no more entries from club members as for youngsters it was a great experience and a rare opportunity to compete against clubs from Europe. All the Aldwych skaters that entered obtained personal bests in one or more distances. Full results can be found on www.shorttraconline.info

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Reims Competition - 2007

In Reims, after the second qualifying round of the StarClass events, for the Europa Cup Final for Juniors in Spisska Nova Ves in the Slovack Rep on 20-22 December.

Ian Upcott finished in 4th place after both qualifying competitions, Ian has quailied for the Junior A category. In Reims the Junior A category had a entry of 24 in the Junior A category. 13 clubs, from 6 Western European countries. For full results of the Reims competition and the overall Junior A Category qualifiers for the final can be found on www.shorttrackonline.info The Final qualifying competition for the Junior D,C and D Categories is being held in Mannheim Germany on 30th Nov to 2 Dec 2007.

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StarClass - Competition in Champery Switzerland.

In the first round of the EuroStar Mens Junior A's Ian Upcott finishes in third place overall against fierce opposition from Serge Plancher from the USF club and Stephane Perier from ASMB.

Aldwych were well represented at the first StarClass competition to be held in Champery Switzerland.

For full results go to www.shorttrackonline.info

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National Trials - Sept 2007

The National Trials were held on 1-2 September 07 at Nottingham to select the National Junior and Seniors Squads for the coming season.

Aldwych skaters (9) were well represented with the trials largest entry for the trials 27 men and 16 ladies. Unfortunately Sarah Lindsey was unable to compete due to injury but the other Aldwych ladies gave good account of them selves by finishing in 2nd (Joanna Williams) 5th (Sally Conway) 16th (Georgina Conway). In the men's 7th (Ian Upcott), 11th (Stuart Loughrey), 12th (Gerard Williams), 13th (Hew Williams) and 27th (Robert Bailey).

Congratulations to all who made the Squad and with the coaching and training at Guildford for those who did not make the Squads this time, will do in the future.

Full results for the National Trails results.

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