Morpeth qualifies for World Cup on the ice

Chase Morpeth on the ice at the Ice Skating camp in the Netherlands.

Well-known Whanganui inline speed skater Chase Morpeth has completed a two-week introduction to long-track ice speed skating in Heerenveen, the Netherlands.

Morpeth was invited by a Melbourne-based Australian group, sponsored by Crisp Air Ltd and the International Ice Union, to travel to the Netherlands as an Oceania group, to identify and develop speed skating talent from this part of the world.

There are currently no long-track ice rinks in New Zealand or Australia, so this was a rare opportunity to learn about a completely new sport from scratch in a world-class facility.

Chase Morpeth takes a break.

The group of 10 inliners, five male and five female skaters, seven from Australia and three from New Zealand, commenced a rigorous regime of twice-a-day training sessions under professional coaching at the world-renowned Thialf Centre of Excellence.

Chase has taken to this new sport straight away, and after two weeks has relished the new challenge and has become proficient in the unique ‘clap skate’ technology.

The camp then culminated in a competition between the 10 skaters, within a wider competition on February 17, with 188 competitors. Two races were run over 500 m and 1000m and Chase won both. His time in the 1000m race qualified him to compete in the mass start race in World Cup competitions. Chase was only 0.22 seconds off qualifying for the Junior 500m race at the World Cup, so he’s not far off ticking that box as well.

After only two weeks on the ice, this is a great achievement and Chase is excited about the future in this sport. Of course, long-track skating is not easily possible in New Zealand, (only on lakes in the South Island when they are frozen) so Chase has left the camp and travelled by train the 8 ½ hours to Geisingen, Germany, where he will re-join his Team Arena Geisingen inline speed skating team, to train until September, when the World Champs will be held again in Italy.

After that, with this valuable ice experience under his belt, he plans to travel with the team to Inzell, Germany to train through the long track ice season, hoping to capitalise on the skills gained from Heerenveen, and having now qualified to race in some World Cup events, this year will be one of the exciting new opportunities for this full-time athlete out there, living his dream.