The Australian Speed Skate team have wrapped up their World Skate Games campaign in Buenos Aires in Argentina.
For our three Australian representative athletes Asha Hickford, Harry Geary and Tyler Robertson this was their first World Skate Games, each competing in a number of different disciplines from the 1km Track race, Junior Ladies 200m Time Trial, Junior Men 10km Elimination and the 42km Marathon race.
Coach, Kevin Geary can only explain this World Skate Games as a “baptism of fire” for his athletes but is incredibly proud of how they were able to overcome some tough obstacles and produce some fantastic results.
“It was the first World Skate Games for us, my athletes and myself. I am incredibly proud of how the team performed. Especially proud of how they bounced back from some not-so-great results and set back to some fantastic results, exceeding expectations,” Coach Geary said.
Australia's only female Speed Skater Asha Hickford had her best placing in the Junior Ladies Point 10km race where she placed 13th but was unable to finish her 42km Marathon race due to a crash with other competitors.
She said her experience at the World Skate Games is filled with mixed emotions.
“I overall had a great experience, the emotions towards my races are quite mixed but I found to have really enjoyed and performed well on the road and the 10 km points race, so I’m happy with that,” Hickford said.
Geary and Robertson found their experiences to be quite similar, having enjoyed the Games as a whole and being able to achieve their goals for the World Skate Games. Geary had the highest finish for our Australian athletes, placing 9th in the Junior Men Points 10km race and Robertson placed 27th in the Junior Men Elimination 15km race, his personal best at the Games.
“I really enjoyed and am proud of my World Skate Games experience. Heading into the Games I set my goal to make it into the top 15. I know that’s quite ambitious but I was able to achieve this goal and I am truly ecstatic about it,” Geary said.
“I found the Games to be a really good, interesting and fun experience. Overall I’m proud of what I have achieved including the 42km Marathon which was a monster of a race,” Robertson added.
Now that the Games have concluded the Australian skate team is taking a break from training before looking towards Nationals 2023.
“After the Games, we are just going home to rest and recover for a couple of weeks and then get back into training for Nationals in 2023,” Robertson said.
“For the athletes, all of them have come away with clear ideas of where the future focus for training lies and hopefully a renewed passion to keep pushing and training hard. I’d like to see them all compete at the next World Championships in Italy, in 2023,” Coach Geary added.
Australian Speed Skating Results
Track 200 MTT FINAL Junior Ladies
25th Asha Hickford
Track Junior Men Point Elimination 10,000m
26th Harry Geary
36th Tyler Robertson
Track Junior Ladies Point Elimination 10,000m
28th Asha Hickford
Track Junior Men Elimination 10,000m
15th Harry Geary
34th Tyler Robertson
Road Junior Men Elimination 15,000m
19th Harry Geary
27th Tyler Robertson
Road Junior Ladies Elimination 15,000m
25th Asha Hickford
Road Junior Men Point 10,000m
9th Harry Geary
30th Tyler Robertson
Road Junior Ladies Point 10,000m
13th Asha Hickford
Road One Lap Ladies and Men
31st Asha Hickford
33rd Harry Geary
34th Tyler Robertson
Road Ladies 100m Sprint
20th Asha Hickford
Road Men 100m Sprint
32nd Tyler Robertson
42km Marathon Road Race Ladies
DNF Asha Hickford
42km Marathon Road Race Men's
56th Tyler Robertson
70th Harry Geary