Wanganui pair trail champion

1, 2, 3: Timaru's Nicole Begg (left) has Wanganui's Jessica van Bentum and Rebecca Smith chasing her hard this summer in the regional speed skating events. Photo/Supplied

When it comes to competitive speed skating, Wanganui's Jessica van Bentum and Rebecca Smith have only one name ahead of them on the national scene.

The pair both earned podium places for the fourth major event in a row at the Tour of Timaru last week in the women's A grade.

However, for now they must take a back seat to the legend as multiple world senior and junior champion Nicole Begg dominated the tour.

The Timaru professional, 26, won every race on her home course, with van Bentum second overall and Smith third, as they have been in previous events.

Wanganui club spokesman Ken Smith said Begg's chokehold on the top of the dais remains no surprise.

"She is a former world champion and a vastly experienced competitor at senior world championship level.

"Into the second year of her comeback, after a 2010 injury put her out of the sport for two years, Begg is on a mission to re-establish herself at the top of the sport and a pair of teenage up-and-comers were not going to stand in her way."

However, Ken Smith said Van Bentum, 17, and Rebecca Smith, 16, have a primary focus on selection in the 2014 New Zealand junior team off to the world championships, and they were the two top juniors in Timaru "by a clear margin".

"Local sprint specialist Dahna Penty got ahead of Smith in three sprints and Analiese Le Roy picked up a second in the 15km elimination.

"But the rest of the 13-stage tour was a Begg/van Bentum/Smith procession."

The other Wanganui skaters on the tour were Nicole Travers and Monique Cleeve, who finished eighth and 13th respectively.

The A grade men's tour was won convincingly by Kapiti's multiple world champion Peter Michael, followed by Antony Nalder of Valley In-line and Kapiti's Josh Whyte.

The Wanganui team's next competition is the NZ Banked Track Nationals on February 15-16, also in Timaru.