 |  | |||||||||||
 |  |  |  |  | ||||||||
 | | | | | | | | | | | | |
 | Planet Extras! | | Race Reports Observations from the 2005 Outdoor National Championships Jim White Shares His Post-Event Thoughts With the Planet (Part 2 of 3) Dominant Skaters "Each category had "In the men's world class division, it was Joey Mantia [Team Florida]. He fairly often lapped the field. And as a matter of fact, I think he lapped the pack three times in the marathon. [The marathon was skated on a 800-meter road course.] "He didn't need to skate the marathon. [He had already won a place on the World Team.] But he wanted to set the record in it -- and he did. [His time of 1:15:48 eclipsed Norm Kirby's 1996 mark of 1:18:33.] "In the women's division, Jilleanne Rockard [GT Speed] was dominant. She also lapped the pack several times. "In the junior men's division (ages 13-17), Chad Horn was dominant and Eddy Alvarez, I think, deserved honorable mention. Eddy did very well in several races but collected several penalties. If it hadn't been for the penalties, his point total would have been right up there with Chad's. "In junior women's, there's wasn't total dominance by any one skater. Brittany Bowe [Team Florida] was obviously outstanding. But not very often, if ever, did she lap the pack. "Right up there with her were Heather Richardson and Amber Yarborough and a couple of other good skaters: Emily Scott and Brianna Kramer. "What this tells me is that we will have a very strong women's team for the next few years." Vendors "There were not many vendors. Hyper was there, as you might expect. [Hyper's Jim Larson finished on top in the master men's division.] Powerslide and Tru-Rev were also there. Tru-Rev has picked up the sponsorship of a number of skaters in the last few months. For a new vendor, they are off to an impressive start." Teams "Three teams were impressive. One was Team Florida [coached by Renee Hildebrand], which has been dominant for a couple of years. ... Team Florida had a lot of parents at the meet. And the parents help out. It's not just the skaters and coaches that make a team, it's the whole support system. "The team even had its own sweatshirt made specifically for the meet with the name of all the team skaters on it. "The two other impressive teams were the High Point Speed Club of North Carolina [the team of Amber Yarborough] and Patty Leazier's team [Fast Forward Racing] from Pennsylvania. "Patty had about 20 skaters there, almost as many as Team Florida had. They won a lot of medals, mostly in the relay events. They have a lot of solid skaters and a lot of depth." (continued)
| Discuss Related Reading: • Full Results of the Outdoor Nationals (USA Roller Sports web site) | |||||||||
| |||||||||||||
... Copyright © 2005 by Robert Burnson | |||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||
| | | | | | | | | | | | | |
