Wanganui in medal haul

Wanganui skaters (in yellow and blue) from left, Krystine Davies, Monique Cleeve, Renee Teers (78) were part of a 31-medal team haul.

Wanganui Speed Skating team has been rewarded for its 31-medals haul at the speed skating road, track and marathon nationals with four selected for the NZ Oceania Team.

Following the nationals in Auckland last week Renee Teers, Andrew Jones, Krystine Davies and Chase Morpeth were selected for the national side to race in Australia over Easter.

Whanganui's Rebecca Smith - a former national and Oceania champion and NZ World's team member with experience racing and training in Europe - was named as assistant coach.

Meanwhile in the national it was Whanganui 14-year-old Renee Teers who was the star winning the overall junior girls class in a competitive field earning her the NZ Skating Federation Oscar, its highest award for an outstanding performance, for her 5000m open win.

Teers dominated the 1000m and 5km points races on the road and was the close runner up in the 200TT and 500m. She was 4th overall in the 20km open elimination.

On the indoor track Teers won the 800m and won silver in all the other class events.

But in the 5000m open feature event Teers charged from the back of the large pack and carved her way around the outside of the leading bunch of senior skaters on the last lap to claim victory.

Teers finished her championships with a photo finish silver in the 21K half marathon to Timaru's tough Charlotte Grant.

Wanganui's Masters Champion Krystine Davies proved she has more strings to her bow than just the marathon - in which she has twice won the silver at the World Masters championships - by finishing third in the open 5km.

Davies completely dominated the Masters Women's grade, winning all but one race.
Intermediate Women's skater Monique Cleeve was a upset winner in the 1000m on the road and backed up with second in the 500m 20km open elimination.

Cleeve finished her nationals with a bronze in the 10km points and silver with Davies in the senior women's relay.

Andrew Jones a silver in the opening 200TT, 500m and marathon to go with bronze in the 20km Elim, 1000m, indoor 1500m and mixed pair relay with Davies.

Wanganui's Chase Morpeth and Drew Brennan dominated the juvenile boys class with Brenan winning the 1000m road and Morpeth taking a clean sweep of the remaining titles.

First year juvenile Josh Valentine couldn't crack the podium and had to settle for a string of fourth placings while team mate Lucas Hodgson made a few finals in his first year.

Valentine joined Morpeth and Brennan on top of the podium in the junior boys team relay.

They were running a steady second when two of the Timaru skaters tangled up a change and fell.

Although they were up and away in seconds, Morpeth had seized the chance and hit the afterburners, creating a break that Valentine and Brennan held to the finish for gold.

Meanwhile the junior girls team of Teers, Nicole Valentine and Keira Hodgson earned a bronze medal in their team relay.

Valentine struggled to make an impression on the strong Junior Girls field but again played her part as a member of the silver medal winning junior mixed relay team which included Teers, Morpeth and Brennan.

Keira Hodgson got stronger as the championships progressed, making the occasional final and skating her best when in the relay teams.

Cassandra Bonica started the championships with a bad fall in the road but was much more convincing on the indoor track putting in some good midpack performances.

Micky Zhang was the winner of all but one of the primary boys titles, justifying his late entry.

Wanganui was well represented in the large primary girls field with Keira Brennan hunting down the leaders for two gold medals in the 1500m road and 400m track to go along with a host of silvers.

She was on track for a third gold in the road 1000m when a big crash spoilt her chances. Newcomer Victoria Smith won bronze medal in the 400m, her last race of the event.

Seven-year-old Gabby Valentine took the Whittle Cup as the youngest skater at the event.