The first local shorttrack race we could attend... Peter was ill in the previous 2 years so this was his debut race here 'at home'. There were a lot of kids racing, but the Junior A and Senior fields were almost missing as most of them were already in Dresden training for the European Championships.
Peter started with 500m and unluckily fell in the 3rd turn when trying to overtake a much slower opponent. He stood up quickly but finished in 4th place only and so could not advance to the Final A. In Final B he raced virtually alone winning the heat with 2 seconds, earning overall 7th on this distance. His time was fine but being in a stronger group could have helped for sure.
500m Final B
Later the 222m proved to be the best part of the day. In all 3 heats he started well and fought strongly. He got in the Final B and won that, so he made 5th overall on 222m.
222m Quarterfinal
222m Semifinal
222m Final B
Closing the day he had to skate the 333m quarterfinal where he made a big, stupid mistake. They were only 3 in that heat and he fell again upon overtaking. But this time he stood up very late and from then on he did not skate at 100% only 70... in the last turn the guy in 2nd position fell but Peter was too far behind (skating comfortable...) to grab 2nd position. It was a silly mistake and this has put him in the Final C only. We were quite angry about this but re-watching the race in the evening helped Peter understand how silly this slow skating was. :(
The next day he skated the Final C of 333m where he ran fine but as coach TT told him 'it was a fine one but you also know it should have been in the Final A'. This has put him on 9th place on this distance, so 8th overall. Too bad, only one silly mistake and you are out of top 6...
333m Final C
There wasn't much left but the relays where he were teamed up with NB (first race) and HB. He really did not feel like relaying with HB as he only has bad memories of relays with him. And again it proved true. NB had to do 1 lap, then Peter and HB 2-2 each. HB however skated in front of him after 1.5 laps and from then on it was total chaos. Coach TT was absolutely KO-d and noone seem to understand how a 10-year old boy can not count onto 2... They were DQ-d in the end being lapped twice but it did not bother anyone.
All in all I think it was a good race and if those two falls haven't had happened Peter could have easily finished in top 6, or in top 4 maybe. He had quite good starts and the times he skated are fine and I hope they will get better until late February for the Junior Champs. Full results here.
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