Speed skating: Skaters make World Cup squad

Wanganui speed skaters Jessica van Bentum (left) and Rebecca Smith have gained New Zealand selection to compete at the World Championships in Argentina later this year. Photo/Supplied

Young Wanganui speed skaters Jessica van Bentum (17) and Rebecca Smith (16) have been selected to represent New Zealand at the 2014 World In Line Speed Skating Championships.

The pair will compete in the Junior Women's 19 and under class at the championships in Argentina in November.

Both skaters are part of the highly successful Wanganui Amateur Roller Skating Club speed team coached by Gary Clark. The pair have done Clark proud with van Bentum qualifying first and Smith second on the points table well clear of their rivals.

Van Bentum has had an outstanding if somewhat frustrating domestic season chasing former World Champion Nichol Begg home in nearly every race in the New Zealand Senior Ladies 17 and over class. Smith won four national titles in the Intermediate Ladies 15 and 16 class and was usually third home behind Begg and van Bentum in the open events.

In addition van Bentum was named Wanganui Junior Sports Woman of the Year and Smith Wanganui Secondary Schools Junior Sports Woman of the Year.

For van Bentum, this will be her second World Championships after competing in Belgium in 2013 where she scored an outstanding sixth place in the 1000m final setting a new New Zealand record in the process. She has put her university career on hold for now and in April travels to Germany where she will be part of the development squad run by the Arma Wheels team, a project founded and run by former World Champion Kalon Dobbin, coach and brother of Sochi Olympian Shane, and based at the Geisingen Arena.

She will compete in international events around Europe and train and live at the Geisingen facility until the World Championships in November.

Smith is a year 13 student at Wanganui High School and will stay in Wanganui training with her Wanganui teammates under the eye of Clark until her World Championship debut in November and will be part of the Junior Women's Oceania team to race the Australians in April in Palmerston North.

She was the winner of an AMP Regional Scholarship awarded by the Wanganui firm Kelly and Associates to help her pursue her goal of attending the World Championships and she is thrilled to have justified the confidence of her supporters by being selected.

Both girls are also extremely grateful to the team at Mitre 10 Mega for allowing them the use of their facilities as a training venue without which they would never have reached their goal.