The Wisbech Inline Speed Skaters brought home medals, trophies and four British champions at a recent competition.
“With a 15-person team, the weekend-long event started off with the 300mt time trial event with Eve McInerney coming second in the junior girls category, and third places for James Eve and Luke Frary in the scholar boys and masters men categories respectively.
Eight-year-old Arthur Buckler was the first to triumph for the team winning all his events, becoming overall British Champion in the mini boys category.
All competitors had 500mts races, with Lucy McInerney just pipping her twin sister, Eve, to the line to finish second ahead of her sister in the junior girls category, and James Eve finished a solid third place with the scholar boys.
James Garwell brought home a total of four medals, three bronze and a silver in the pupil boys category.
Eve triumphed in the 5,000mts points race, winning 10 points clear of her rival Maya Bathgate in treacherously wet conditions on Saturday, and added two silver medals in both the 1,000mts and 3,000mts elimination races with extremely close finishes in each race just a skate length behind rival Maya Bathgate from Essex in the 3k on a much drier track on Sunday.
Scholar boys participant, James Eve, showed great improvement in his skating and won an additional bronze medal to add to the two already gained in the 3,000mts followed by a second place in the 5,000mts race.
Flynn McGurk also came in third in the cadets category in a highly competitive 5,000 mts elimination race against very strong European competitors. His race tactics saw him stick behind Alex King of Essex throughout the long race and on the penultimate lap made his move past his rival to steal third place.”
His mum, Amanda, said: “Flynn skated his socks off and I couldn’t be more proud. His performance in the 5k elimination was superb.”
WISS team welcomed back Tom Van Vliet from the Netherlands, who last visited in April and took part in the senior mens races. He couldn’t become British Champion due to not being a British national, but he proved a force to be reckoned with as the flying dutchman made a clean sweep in 500mts, 1k, 10k points and 15k elimination races.
He then joined forces with team-mate and coach Mike McInerney in the senior mens 3,000mts relay race, finishing the event in second place.
The relay races were the final events of the weekend. The cadet boys team of Flynn McGurk, Warren Eve and Dylan Taylor proved a strong team and finished in first place in the 3,000mts relay with a busy track ahead of them.
Twin sisters Eve and Lucy teamed up with Charlotte Stapleton, making her British Championships debut, to compete in the junior/senior/masters 3,000mts relay to finish in a solid second place.
Rat racers and team newcomers Maxwell Webb and Kirby Barker finished first and second respectively. The team were also joined by Taylor Barker, Jo Tidman and Graham Freear.
Team coach Michael McInerney said: “Well done to everyone who competed this weekend. Fantastic results from the hard training you’ve all done.”
The team have had a busy month in July with the London Skaters Inline Marathon event at the London Velopark cycle track. It was a tough days racing with head wind on parts of the track and undulating hills and dips which took its toll on participants.
However, the event saw James Eve over the line in first place in the 30 minute challenge. Warren Eve claimed a second place in the cadet boys half marathon event, completing in a time of 41mins.
Eve McInerney finished in first place over the line in the junior girls full marathon of 26 miles in a respectable time of 1hr 34mins. This was after her busy and challenging week-long stint in Portugal representing Great Britain in the European Junior Championships.
WISS now look forward to a visit to Belgium to take part in the Flanders Grand Prix in August.
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