Rebecca Smith shines for Wanganui - January 2015

Wanganui's Rebecca Smith (former WHS student), a distance skater, pulled off a surprising second place in the Senior Women's 500m sprint behind Begg and ahead of Dania Gibbs.

WANGANUI skaters matched it with the best at the 2015 NZ Speed Road and Flat Track and Marathon Championships in Timaru this month.

The championships, held between December 29 and January 3, were a cosmopolitan affair with a host of international skaters present to challenge the New Zealanders.

The most accomplished was Junior Women's World Championship bronze medallist Deborah Marchant of France, renowned for her strength.

Former World champion Nicole Begg of Timaru was in devastating form in the Senior Women's class, winning every event over all distances.

Marchant, a distance specialist, pushed Begg hard in the longer events, with other New Zealanders able to mount a challenge in the sprints.

Wanganui's Rebecca Smith, a distance skater, pulled off a surprising second place in the Senior Women's 500m sprint behind Begg and ahead of Manawatu sprinter Dania Gibbs.

Smith had a good individual Road Nationals, also collecting bronze medals in the Open 20K and Marathon, behind Begg and Marchant, and a fourth in the Senior/Intermediate 10K points, where Gibbs, the sprint specialist, returned the favour by claiming a surprise bronze.

Jessica van Bentum (former WHS student) had a quiet Road Nationals but still took the bronze in the 200m TT and a bronze in the 1000m.

Once the action moved indoors, van Bentum found her feet and took silver in the 300TT behind Begg, and bronze in the 3000m, 1500m, 5000m and 800m.

Wanganui's Melissa White caught fire on the indoor track, with outstanding efforts to take a silver in Senior Women's 800m, and third in the 300m TT as well as string of fourth places.

However, it was in the relays that White had her best and worst moments, featuring in two of the best female races of the championships. In the Senior Ladies pairs, Timaru's top pair of Begg and youngster Sophie Lowen gaped the field from the start and were never headed - with the race devolving into a clash between the Wanganui No1 team of van Bentum and White and the Wanganui B team of Smith and youngster Sophie Tang for second.

Smith shadowed van Bentum into the final exchange and heaved Tang down the inside of White into the corner and second place. White was having none of it and muscled her way back past Tang into the last bend and into second across the line, only to be relegated to third by the judges.

However, better and worse was to come in the Senior Women's 3000m team's relay. The Wanganui team led out early with Smith and White building a lead on Timaru opposites Lowen and Analiese Le Roy, only for van Bentum, who had the thankless task of marking a rampaging Begg, to be hauled in. White was magnificent in clawing the lead back on each exchange and building a buffer, but each time Begg mowed down the Wanganui lead and eventually Timaru won with Begg putting on an almost unbelievable display to close a 60m lead for a last corner pass.

Wanganui got consolation with a win for the Mixed Relay Team of Smith, White, Andrew Jones and Eden Smith.

Wanganui's best results were in the Primary Boys grade, where Trent James was the winner of three NZ titles on the road and his only loss came at the hands of Wanganui teammate Josh Valentine who outsprinted James in the 1500m. Valentine took all the silver medals in the other races. Once indoors, Mt Wellington's Aryan Walimbe put his ice skating training into practice to win all bar the 300m TT, where James again took the title.

Caitlin Fergusson more than lived up to the promise she showed at the Rivercity Tour and was one of Wanganui's standout performers. Competing in a large Juvenile Girls grade, Fergusson was required to race heats and sometimes semi-finals and qualified for all her finals. In the finals she was up against Timaru star Ella Benson and Chinese star Qi Miao, as well as Australian Champion ex-pat Serenity Griffith.

On the road, Fergusson was fourth in the 200m TT, 1000m and 500m and third in the 3000m. Indoors she was third outright in the 300TT but after battling neck and neck with Qi Miao in the heats, a practice crash followed by another in the 800m final saw her further podiums limited to third Kiwi in the 1500m final.

With another year in the Juvenile Grade still to come, Fergusson looks to be a champion in waiting.

Championship debutante Nicole Valentine grew in confidence and was rewarded with a bronze in the Junior Girls Team Relay on the track with Cleeve and Fergusson.

Chase Morpeth had an uneven championships in the Juvenile Boys class but showed he has speed with a silver in the 200m TT, and stamina with a third in the 3000m.

In the Junior Girls grade, historically a Wanganui stronghold, Timaru rising star Tyla Smith won all the road events but Wanganui's Monique Cleeve put on her usual gutsy performance, running Smith close for second in all the events.

Indoors, Eugenia Lee picked up the bronze in the 300m TT. In the other indoor races, it was only Renee Teers who flew the flag, making all the finals and picking up a fourth in the 1500m as well as a silver with Lee in the Junior Pairs relay.

Like Fergusson, Teers will be one to watch when the current medallists move to the Intermediate grade for 2016.

In his first Senior Men's championships, Andrew Jones gave a good account against a field that included two World Championship medallists in Christchurch's Ollie Jones and Kapiti's Josh White, as well as Czech brothers Mateji and Simon Pravda and Columbian Germain Oviedo. He was third Kiwi in the 300m TT and ran with the leaders in many events.

Eden Smith had a string of bronze medals in the Intermediate Men's Road championships behind Manawatu's Callum Judd and Mt Wellington's Zac Biggs and indoors chased Biggs home for all the silvers but couldn't match the ice skater's skills.

In the Intermediate Ladies, Sophie Tang added a terrific silver behind Georgia Hurley in the indoor 1500m for a reminder of her potential.

Holly McKenzie battled hard. Her father, Ian McKenzie, picked up several third places in the Masters Men's.