National Student's Championship 2009

This year's Student's Championship took place in Szombathely.

We decided to travel there one day earlier and stay there for some more time, read about that part in the kilo & fam blog.

Coach E decided not to attend the race, in fact he declared before the regionals that this race is not important at all. I do not agree with him on that, the kids represent their schools and regions in this race, and they can score full marks from teachers. In fact when it was the same race on ice, we were told it was very important. Then what about this one???

The race was to start at 9 o'clock, it started at 11:30 :( By that time the early morning good weather has gone and some enormous storm clouds came from the North. And the wind was high and pushed some very cold air ahead so it generally turned into an ugly, bad weather for racing.

What caused that delay? We will never know... There were difficulties with everything, start numbers, start lists, who came, who did not... aaarrrgh. Same story as ever.

Warmup

So at last the race started, with the amateurs. There were lots of them and as a parent of an oh-so-professional Peter sometimes it is a chore to wait all that time, but on the other hand it is good to see so many kids skating. One thing though - there seem to be 'real' amateurs and 'racing-as-amateur' amateurs, the latter move and race just like any pro. It is quite unfair for the real amateur ones.

When Peter's short distance came, we were well over noon. On the start list hanging near the directors there were 7 listed, he was put on start position #2. Then I saw 9 starters and the referee put him on lane #6. Why oh why??? These things can make him so nervous. Well Peter's start was OK until 20m, when a guy from TDKE decided to cross-skate just right before him, their skates clapped and he almost fell. Somehow he managed to stay on his wheels but dropped from #4 to #8 in a moment. As the distance was quite short (2 laps) and the track is very difficult for takeovers, I was quite happy to see him pass a guy clearly and fight and win over another one on the finish line. That put him in 6th position, which is good if we look at the circumstances, but he was very upset and sad and angry with it. Watch it here.

Then came - waiting again :D It is a pity there is no schedule put up and poor kids cannot be told 'You have 2 hours until the next race, take off your skates, eat something and rest a bit'. Instead they sit there listening to the speaker and guessing when it will be their turn. At some point rain came so we had to sit in the car and wait for the longer distances.

The 'long' one was 3 laps (500m I guess), Peter had a good start but stopped 'running' early and lost positions there. Then he got in turbo mode and skated fast and finished #5.

In the relays he teamed up with 2 guys from the other club in Szeged, Tornado (SzT & FB). He was the starting one and he did fine until he reached the relay zone and found noone there. The 2nd guy, FB then started, very very late and entered the zone, so according to the rules they had to touch eachother for a valid relay. But by that time Peter has already left the zone so it was over, DQ for no relay. I think it was FB's fault, if he sees he is so late he shouldn't enter the relay zone and let Peter go on for another lap. Interestingly Peter and SzT almost cried in frustration, but FB did not, he took off his skate and started eating pizza. I think that shows the approach clearly :(

Peter met with HÁ from KDSE whom he befriended last year, they talked so much during the day. And he made friends with SzT from Tornado, whom he fought so hard in April in Szeged. It is so good to see them this way, they fight during the race and then play and talk together. Sportsmanship practiced early.

The podium ceremony lasted for at least about an hour, in chilling freezing 7-8 C - and then came the mandatory visit to the McDonalds with the very exhausted kids, a quick shower and big sleep :)