Santa Claus Cup, 2008

So it has arrived, Peter's first real shorttrack race. Santa Claus Cup 2008, Budapest.

And in fact a very proud dad reporting, you may expect a very much biased report here :)
It was a 2-day race, with a warm-up session in the evening prior to the first day, so we had to drive to Budapest early afternoon on Friday, 12th December. Peter enjoyed the evening session quite a bit, he especially liked the quality of ice in the rink.
Saturday morning the race started with the smallest ones, so he had to get on ice quite early, in Heat 3 of 500m. He finished 2nd in his heat so he made it directly into the final, though I was not too much satisfied with his time, he clearly eased up in the last 2 laps, giving away 2 seconds per lap. It is quite uncommon from him but I told myself it must have been the stage fright.
In the finals he finished 6th but no problem, as he was smallest & youngest so grabbing a 6th place from 14 competitors is a very nice achievement.

Then came the heats of 222m and he made it to the semis in a nice way, it was a big fight to claim 2nd but he missed it by 0.2 seconds. In the semis he finished 3rd so went to the B-final and finished 3rd there (7th from 14).
After all these heats and finals he had to do the 333m quarter-final in the evening but again, showing a superb form, got it under his belt coming 2nd.

The next day he was simply - tired. He was lacking concentration and was yawning while I laced up his boots - not the best state of mind to get on ice at all :s But I think I must not blame him for that, he had to fight in 6 stages the previous day and this kind of pressure was quite unknown for him so far - but remember, he is only 7 years old...
He fell in the 333m semi-final so went into the final B, where he met the mats again so finished 3rd there (7th from 14 again).
Then there was only 1 commitment left for him, to cover the starting 1.5 laps in the relays for cat C-D-E boys, so we could start a relay team, otherwise there would have been only 2 boys from the team, missing the criteria of 3 starting... He started (looked bit comic compared to 14-yr-old boys...) and made a nice relay, so he did what he had to do for the team :)
Overall he gained 7th place and everyone finishing ahead of him was significantly older - just click and check out the age of the others on the overall classification list. He ran super times, personal bests in all distances and very promising ones - now I am very very curious about his season-ending times due in March or so.
Generally speaking about the race itself it was very well organized, with a good speaker and nice people all around.

Complete results are here, or you can see them filtered for Cat F boys, too.
I'll try my best uploading videos to YouTube and link them here ASAP.

Transition...

...to ice was going on since October. In fact, Peter says he likes skating on ice more than on inlines. He managed to adopt well, though many times he is not low enough, but... he is only 7, has quite some time to refine his position skills.
There was a small local race together with another club, a good opportunity to check out race times and gain some experience. Peter - as youngest in his category - finished 2nd (from 5) in 3 heats, and 3rd in one, where he clearly missed overtaking opportunities. But we talked it over and he showed the next heat he can fight.
You may check out the videos on YouTube, in cronological order:
400m 222m 333m 500m
(the camera ran out of memory in the last lap of the 500m but nothing happened there...)
When running alone, against the clock, he is now 6 seconds quicker on 222m than he was in March - we will see next March how he will develop during the winter season.

Santa Cup is going to happen this weekend in Budapest, so, his first real shorttrack test is near :)

... my transition to winter mode is like:

• got back to going to the gym 3 times a week
• running 4-5 kms 3 times a week
• an hour-long indoor training, once a week

I generally refer to these as 'pre-season' - I myself wonder when the base/season would start at all :D:D

Oh almost forgot - convinced Aniko to start skating, so she already had 2 lessons and she says she had fun :)