News
British Short Track Championships 2010
A total of 17 Aldwych skaters competed at the British Short Track Speed
Skating Championships held at the National Ice Centre in Nottingham on
17th & 18th April 2010.
The Aldwych Skaters did very well, bringing home a collection of medals.
Medal winners were:
Pee Wee Boys - Anthony Cast 1st Place, Aydin Djemal 3rd Place
Juvenile Girls - Mariyo Takezoe 3rd Place
Junior Ladies - Helen Clark 2nd Place
Senior Men (Overall) - Ian Upcott 3rd Place
Senior Men (1000M) - Ian Upcott 1st Place
Relay Team (5000M final) - 3rd place
The full results can be seen at Shorttrackonline
Gent Easter Cup Competition - 3rd & 4th April 2010
Recently a total of 9 young Aldwych skaters travelled to Belgium to
compete at the 30th annual Easter Cup Competition in Gent.
There was a massive number of skaters competing in total - over 160
across the range from Junior F up to Junior A.
There was some fierce competion across the 2 days of the
competition, each category competing across 2 distances.
Olivia Weedon was placed 13th & Nayla Djemal 14th in the Junior
F Boys & Girls category.
Bethan Lindsay was 4th, Tanith Turner 8th & Jeyda Djemal 11th in
the Junior E Girls category.
Shae Ingram was 13th in the Junior E Boys category.
Anthony Cast was 7th, Aydin Djemal 8th & Jimmy Ingram 22nd in the
Junior D Boys category.
Scotland v England Competition - 21st March 2010
Recently 3 Aldwych skaters were invited to compete for England in
the third England/Scotland competition for Junior skaters, making up
25% of the team that raced.
The three skaters were Helen Clark, Anthony Cast & Aydin Djemal.
Racing was over 3 rounds of different distances, plus 2 relay races.
The competition was fierce, with Scotland eventually winning, beating
the English team with a total of 151 points against England's 94. Due
to the short notice of the competition, the distance to travel to
the event & the fact the competition was held on a Sunday evening
only 12 England skaters out of an invited 16 were able to attend.
In particular the 2 younger boys did very well, racing against
skaters who were 2 or 3 categories above them, and both managed to hold
their own very well. Anthony achieved new personal best times at 1,000M
& 1,500M, and Aydin achieved a new PB at 1,500M.
We look forward to the opportunity to reverse this result next year.
21st Nottinghamshire Junior British Open
9 of Aldwych Speed Club's junior skaters recently competed at the
21st Annual Junior British Open competition amongst a total of over 100
skaters representing 17 clubs from 7 countries (including 1 skater from
Australia).
After a long 2 day competition with skaters competing over 2
distances plus a 3rd "Super Final" distance for the highest placed
skaters in each category Aldwych were rewarded with 3 podium positions,
with Helen Clark winning the Ladies Junior B category, and Bethan
Lindsay & Aydin Djemal both coming third in their respective
categories - Junior E Girls & Junior D Boys.
New personal best times were achieved by Helen Clark at 1000M &
1500M, Jimmy Ingram at 333M, Bethan Lindsay at 500M, Tanith Turner at
500M, Jeyda Djemal at 333M & 500M and Olivia Weedon at 333M.
Overall classifications & the relay results, plus some podium
pictures are on the NIRC web site here.
Full results, classifications & times can be viewed and
downloaded from the Shorttrackonline website here.
Sheffield & Solihull open competitions
Open competitions were recently held in Sheffield on Sunday 15th
November and in Solihull on Saturday 21st November.
We had a good turnout of Aldwych skaters travelling to Sheffield,
even accounting for the early start time, and after a tightly fought
competition Aldwych were well placed with Peter Armstrong coming first
in the Men/Masters category, Aydin Djemal & Anthony Cast placing
first & second in the Junior D category, and Bethan Lindsay taking
third place in the Junior E category.
At the Solihull competition on Saturday 21st November Aydin Djemal
took 2nd place in the Junior C/D Boys category and Bethan Lindsay &
Tanith Turner achieved 2nd & 3rd place in Junior E girls .
Star Class Competition Hasselt
The second Star Class competition for Seniors & Juniors A &
B was held in Hasselt, Belgium on November 14th & 15th.
Gerard WIlliams, Hew Williams & Helen Clark all took part in
this competition.
Gerard took 8th place overall in the Senior Men category, with Hew
Williams coming 13th in the same category. Helen was 15th overall in
the Ladies Junior B category.
Star Class Competitions Milan & Mannheim
The first two Star Class Competitions were recently held - the first
for Seniors & Junior A & B in Milan, Italy between October 2nd
& October 4th & the second for Juniors C & D in Mannheim,
Germany on October 31st & November 1st.
Gerard Williams & Helen Clark competed in Milan (with Hew
Williams unfortunately being forced to withdraw due to illness), and
Anthony
Cast & Aydin Djemal raced in Mannheim.
In Milan Gerard came was the highest placed British skater in the
Senior Men category, coming 7th overall and third in the 1,500M
distance, and Helen was 22nd in the Ladies Junior B.
In Mannheim Aydin was placed 14th overall, with Anthony in 20th
place after an unfortunate fall in one distance.
For Helen, Aydin & Anthony this was their first time in a Star
Class competition.
Aldwych Open Competition 24th October 2009
Aldwych held our first club open competition of the season on
Saturday 24th October. Despite a slightly disappointing overall turnout
we had a good number of Pee Wee skaters racing.
Several Aldwych skaters did well in the competition including new
PBs for Alex Kalinin, Anthony Cast, Aydin Djemal, Bethan Lindsay, Ed
Djemal, Jeyda Djemal, Jimmy Ingram, Nayla Djemal, Olivia Weedon, Shae
Ingram & Tanith Turner.
Aldwych medal winners were Helen Clark - 1st Place Junior B, Anthony
Cast 2nd place Junior D, Aydin Djemal 3rd place Junior D & Shae
Ingram 3rd place Junior E.
The full results & times are available to download from the
results page here.
The next Aldwych competition will be on Saturday November 28th
November.
28th Trophée Léon Quaglia, Chamonix 2009
Recently a number of Aldwych skaters travelled to Chamonix, in the
French Alps, for the 28th Trophée Léon Quaglia, held at
the Patinoire in the glorious setting of this picturesque French
mountain town.
In all there were around 120 skaters taking part, from 24 clubs & 5
countries, and Aldwych skaters accounted for around 10% of these.
During the week they
took part in on ice training sessions twice a day. Gerard & Hew
Williams are to be thanked for coaching the skaters during these
sessions (with extra thanks to Sue Williams for standing in on the
first day while Gerard & Hew were still travelling out there).
The event was kicked of with a barbecue on the Saturday night, with
training starting on the Sunday morning.
On the final Friday & Saturday the skating competition itself was held.
Aldwych skaters did well in several categories, in particular Gerard Williams came 2nd overall in the Junior A & Senior Men category, winning the 1500M Super Final & coming 2nd in the 500M distance. Hew Williams was 5th overall in the Junior A & Senior Men category.
Aydin Djemal was 2nd overall in the PeeWee / Novice boys category, with Anthony Cast being placed 6th after an unfortunate fall in one distance, and a DQ in the other distance. Anthony did however achieve the fastest time of the competition in his category.
Olivia Weedon was placed 7th overall in the PeeWee / Novice Girls
category.
New PBs were achieved by Anthony Cast, Aydin Djemal, Olivia Weedon,
Mike Maynard, & Jeyda Djemal.
During the week the athletes competed in an uphill mountain run
& a
mountain biking competition, with points from these being added to
those from the skating competition itself to produce placings for an
overall ranking for the week. Only athletes who competed (&
finished) in all 3 events (running, cycling, & skating) were
eligible for the overall award.
Gerard Williams was 2nd in the uphill mountain run, and Anthony Cast
was 3rd in the PeeWees mountain bike competition.
On the final evening a party was held at the rink, and Gerard
Williams was awarded 1st place overall in the Junior A & Senior Men
category, Olivia Williams 1st overall in the PeeWee / Novice Girls
category, and Aydin Djemal 3rd overall in the PeeWee / Novice Boys
category.
Full results of the skating can be downloaded from Shorttrack Online
here
Some pictures from the uphill running & mountain biking
competitions can be viewed on our gallery pages here
Aldwych Club Championships 2008 - 2009
Across 2 days on April 20th & 22nd the Club Championships were
held.
The number of members competing was increased over last year's
Championships, especially among the Pee Wee categories, with 18 skaters
between Pee Wee 1 & 2.
All skaters raced 3 distances and the points from all 3 distances were
added together to give an overall result.
The winners were:
Masters Men - Gary Leighs
Senior Men - Gerard Williams
Junior A Men - Hew Williams
Junior B Men - Robert Bailey
Junior B Ladies - Helen Clark
Juvenile Girls - Kali Turner
Pee Wee 1 Boys - Aydin Djemal
Pee Wee 1 Girls - Anastasia Wigg
Pee Wee 2 Boys - Yoo-An An
Pee Wee 2 Girls - Bethan Lindsay
Full results can be downloaded here
British Short Track Championships - 28th & 29th March 2009
On Saturday 28th & Sunday 29th March the British Short Track
Championships were held at the National Ice Centre in Nottingham.
Aldwych skaters featured in the medals in several categories, with
Sarah Lindsay being first placed in the Senior Ladies category, winning
all 3 distances. Gerard Williams was fifth in the Senior Men
category, and took first place in the 3000M Super Final. The Aldwych
relay team took third place in the 5000M relay final.
Hew Williams was third in the Junior Men category, and Helen Clark was
third in the Junior Ladies category.
Aydin Djemal was first & Anthony Cast was third in the Pee Wee boys
category.
Several new PBs were achieved over the 2 days.
Full times and results can be found on the Shorttrackonline
web site.
Tom Laming Mile - 14th March 2009
On Saturday March 14th at Guildford Aldwych Speed Club ran the second
annual competition for the Tom Laming Mile. This was the club's final
open competition of the 2008 - 2009 competition season, and was well
attended by skaters.
The Tom Laming mile itself was won again by Ian Upcott in a new
personal best time of 2:35.29, taking nearly 20 seconds off his
previous time for this distance. Second place was taken by Mark Worth
of Nottingham, with third & fourth places being taken respectively
by Peter Armstrong & Hew Williams of Aldwych, both achieving new
PB's for the distance. In addition
new personal best times were achieved by club members
Bethan Lindsay, Jeyda Djemal, Anthony Cast, Aydin Djemal, Yoo-An An,
Jimmy Ingram, Jack Woodstock, Shae Ingram, Ellen Carter & Luke
Carter.
New club members Tanith Turner, Nayla Djemal, Russell Dyos & Max
Jamieson all raced as novices for the first time.
World Short Track Championships - 6th - 8th March 2009
At the World Short Track Speed Skating Championships in Vienna, Austria Alwych Speed Club member Sarah Lindsay finished in 6th place in the 500M, reaching the semi finals.In all there were over 160 skaters from 25 countries competing in the mens & ladies categories.
Junior British Open - 28th & 29th December 2008
Aldwych skaters had a very successful time at the 20th Junior British Open, organised by the Nottingham Ice Racing Club & held at the National Ice Centre in Nottingham on 28th & 29th December 2008.Hew Williams was first overall in the Junior A Men category and Sally Conway, Helen Clark and Aydin Djemal all finished third in their categories (Junior A Ladies, Junior B Ladies and Junior D Men respectively).
Aydin Djemal and Anthony Cast both skated personal best times along with Helen Clark who skated 3 personal best times over 500M & 1000M.
In the Junior D Men's Super Final Aydin finished 2nd
giving him third place overall in a time of 1.53.583 for the 1000M and
Anthony finished 4th in a time
of 1.54.508 giving him 4th place overall.
In the Junior A Ladies Final over a distance of
1,500M Sally Conway finished
3rd in a time of 2.59.059. giving her 3rd
place overall and Helen Clark finished 4th in the
Junior B Ladies
Super Final, also over a distance of 1,500M, in a time of 2.51.601
giving her 3rd place overall.
Results are now available for download
from the NIRC web
site.
Full times can be found on the Shorttrackonline
web site.
Aldwych Centenary Dinner - 21st June 2008
On Saturday the 21st June the Aldwych Speed Club celebrated their 100 years, by holding a celebration dinner at the Winning Post in Twickenham, with over 150 members, friends and guests in attendance. It was a time of seeing old friends and renewing old acquaintances from years past, with past members and friends, coming to join in the celebrations from Birmingham, Scotland, Nottingham, Bristol, Ireland, Europe and as far away as New Zealand to name a few.
Old friends reminisced to nostalgic videos and photos of Aldwych members & events from the past to the present, being displayed on a large screen.
Among the honoured guests was the President of NISA Haig Oundjen and past President Miss Sally Anne Stapleford.
The President Haig Oundjen gave a speech congratulating the club on becoming 100 years old, saying how he felt the club and its members displayed a great since of being part of a family and he gave a special message from the President of the ISU Ottavio Cinquanta, congratulating the club for its valued contribution over the years, for the part it has played in the development and promotion of Short Track Speed Skating.
Congratulations must go to John Cosstick for all his hard work in organising this very successful dinner to celebrate the club's 100 Years. "Congratulations John"
Anybody wishing to purchase the Aldwych Centenary book in paperback (£15 + delivery charges) or hardback (£20 + delivery charges), click here to order.
Nottingham Open - April 2008
A win and congratulations for Anthony Cast at the last race competition of the season at Nottingham's 60th celebrationary competition on Saturday 26th April. Anthony won his Junior Class for the Mabel Rook Trophy this gives the club a finish to the season on a high, and to see one of their future stars do well. There were also a few personal best for his team mates, this was shown by Troy Koolhoven in the 800m skating a 1.35.211 in the first round and in the final finishing on a 1.33.925. Full results can be found on Nottingham's website.
Club Championships - April 2008
Aldwych ends the season in the Club Championships with a good entry where some of the skaters finished on a high with new PB's. The Aldwych Club Championships was run over 2 days on a point system. The winners were:
Masters: Gary Leighs
Senior Men: Gerard Williams
Senior Ladies: Vyta Krikunaite
Junior A: Hew Williams
Junior B Ladies: Margarita Onsinskav
Juvenile Boys: Simon Mattock
Juvenile Girles: Helen Clark
PeeWee 2 Boys:Aydin Djemal
PeeWee2 Girls: Bethan Lindsay
British Open - March 2008
Aldwych skaters gave a good account of themselves at the British Championships held in Dundee Scotland on the 29th & 30th even though it was a low club entry as far as Aldwych was concerned, the overall entry was the highest the Championship had seen for many years. But the Aldwych gave a good account of themselves, bringing back a fistful of medals.
In the Pee Wee boys Aydin Djemal won the Bronze Medal also he produced 3 personal best times, Anthony Cast finished in 8th place again producing personal best times over all 3 distances. In the Junior Boys Ian Upcott defended his title winning all three distances for the Gold Medal, Hew Williams finished in 4th place. In the Ladies Sarah Lindsay won the ladies championship by winning all 3 distances and 2nd place went to Joanna Williams, with Jenny Buckley finishing in 5th place. In the seniors Gerard Williams finished in fourth place overall with a good performance in the 1500m giving him entry to the 3000m Super Final where he lapped several top skaters and managed to hold on to the lead until the very end with only Anthony Douglas passing him in the closing stages of the race giving him the second place points, placing him 4th overall in the Championships.
Lastly even though he did not win any medals credit must go to Mike Maynard in the 'Masters' event for pure grit and determination Mike skated 3 personal best times in the 500, 800,1000m in the largest entry for the Masters category, Mike finished 10th overall. Full results can be found on www.shorttrackonline.info
Tom Laming Mile - March 2008
On Saturday 15th March we saw the first Tom Laming Mile take place at the Spectrum Guildford with all the first three places were taken by Aldwych, 1st Ian Upcott, 2nd Gavin Williams and 3rd place went to Hew Williams. the late Tom laming's wife Grace Laming kindly attended to present the prizes for this new event.
For more detailed results, click here.World Short Track Relay Championships - Gangneung, Korea
Great Britain win bronze in the World Short Track Relay Championships in Gangneung in Korea, in the semi-final the team was in a qualifying position, when they were impeded in the closing laps of the race and were advanced to the final. In the final Great Britain beat the USA into third place with Korea taking the Gold and Canada the Silver.
Late news from World Cup Salt Lake City
Great Britain win Bronze medal in the Mens 5000m Relay setting a New British Record time of 6.52.540
World Cup - Salt Lake City Utah - 10th February 2008
After results from last week records keep tumbling in Salt Lake City this week-end we saw no less than 3 new world records set with several skaters going under the old records In the Mens 500m Si-Bak Sung (KOR) set a new record of 41.051. In the Ladies 500m Meng Wang (CHN) set a new time of 43.216 breaking the record she set last week in Quebec.
In the 1500m a new world record was set by Yang Zhou (CHN) in a time of 2.16.729 no less than 3 other skaters in the race went under the old record. The overall placings for the British Skaters was not as good as last week, but they were also breaking records this week end Jon Ely set a new British recoed for 500m in a time of 41.364, Anthony Douglas set a new 1500m record of 2.14.789, and Tom Iveson set a new 1000m record of 1.26.030.
In the Ladies Elise Christie set a new record for 1500m 2.23.664. The top 10 placings was in the Mens category were the 500m(1) was Paul Worth finished in 6th place Jon Ely finished 10th, in the 500m(2) Jon Ely finished in 10th giving us 3 top ten places.
North American World Cup - Québec City - January 2008
The GB team grabs 5 top ten places, with Sarah Lindsay (ALD) finishing in 6th place in the first of the North American World Cups in Québec City. Sarah has for most of the season been recovering from a back injury which Sarah seems to have recovered now after the Ladies success in the European Championships the World Cup is only Sarah's second competition this season.
The men continue to improve by making 4 top ten places with John Ely taking the Bronze medal in the 500m in a 41.879 (British Record to be ratified) to go with his Gold from last year, the winner of the 500m was Yoon-gy Kwak KOR 2nd Charles Hamlin Paul worth finished in 7th
In the 1000m Jon Ely finished 9th and Paul Stanley 10th and he also broke Nick Gooch's 1000m British Record in a time of 1.27.104 (to be ratified) which has stood for 8 years. They now move onto Salt Lake City Utah for the final World Cup of the season.
Friesland Cup - 2008
The final Starclass competition (Friesland Cup) for 2007-08 took place on the week-end of the 23rd January in Leeuwarden in the north of Holland, giving 3rd place to Gerard Williams ALD in the Senior Men's StarClass competition overall, against the 1st Christoph Milz ECO GER and 2nd Torsten Kroger ETR GER.
European Relay Champions
Great Britain Ladies become European Relay Championships this last weekend in a new British Record for the 3000m. in 4.23.172 the team was Sarah Lindsay(Aldwych), Elise Christie (Falkirk), Charlotte Gilmartin (Mohawks), Alex Whelbourne (Nottingham) and Joanna Williams (Aldwych).
In the mens category, Jon Ely won a Gold Medal in the 500m and in the 5000m relay final they took 2nd place coming away with a silver medal each the team members, Jon Ely(Mohawks), Paul Stanley (Mohawks), Tom Iveson (Mohawks) and Paul Worth (Nottingham).
Junior World Championships in Balzano Itay - January 2008
Ian Upcott representing Great Britain finished in 20th Place overal in the Junior World Championships in Bolzano Itay on the 11th - 13th January. Ian was placed 25th in the 1500m with a seasons best time of 2.24.076, 11th in the 500m in another seasons best time of 43.476 and 25th in the 1000m. in 1.33.213
There was an entry in the mens category was 69 competitors from over 30 countries.Other skaters in the team were Jack Whelbourne finished 62nd overal In the Girls was Elise Christie who finished in the highest position of any member of the team in 6th place overal congratulations must go to Elise for winning a silver place medal in the 500m, Charlotte Gilmartin finished in 11th overal and Alex Whelbourne 39th. and in the relay the Girls got the Silver Medal in the 2000m relay.
Olympic Candidates Trophy - 2007
In the Spisska Nova Ves we saw our only representative Ian Upcott competed against the best skaters from Eastern and Western Europe in the Olympic Candidates Trophy. Ian in this competition seemed to have technical problems with his blades and with the sub ZERO temperatures and this was inside the rink in am sure it was as cold or colder inside as it was outside (-6C to -8C degrees) did not help matters Ian finished in 9th place overall. Other GB team members skated well, full results can be seen on www.shorttrackonline.info
Junior British Open - 2007
At the Junior British Open which took place in Nottingham on the 28th & 29th Dec saw Ian Upcott win the Junior A category with opposition from entries from clubs from 4 European Countries also in the Junior A's Hew Williams gave a good performance by reaching the Junior A super Final with Ian. In the Junior E's we saw the club's stars of the future also perform well with Ayndin Djemal and Anthony Cast finish 11th and 14th respectively ( total entry in Cat 21). It was a shame that there were no more entries from club members as for youngsters it was a great experience and a rare opportunity to compete against clubs from Europe. All the Aldwych skaters that entered obtained personal bests in one or more distances. Full results can be found on www.shorttraconline.info
Reims Competition - 2007
In Reims, after the second qualifying round of the StarClass events, for the Europa Cup Final for Juniors in Spisska Nova Ves in the Slovack Rep on 20-22 December.
Ian Upcott finished in 4th place after both qualifying competitions, Ian has quailied for the Junior A category. In Reims the Junior A category had a entry of 24 in the Junior A category. 13 clubs, from 6 Western European countries. For full results of the Reims competition and the overall Junior A Category qualifiers for the final can be found on www.shorttrackonline.info The Final qualifying competition for the Junior D,C and D Categories is being held in Mannheim Germany on 30th Nov to 2 Dec 2007.
StarClass - Competition in Champery Switzerland.
In the first round of the EuroStar Mens Junior A's Ian Upcott finishes in third place overall against fierce opposition from Serge Plancher from the USF club and Stephane Perier from ASMB.
| Rank | Name | Club | Points |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Serge PLANCHER | USF | 68 |
| 2 | Stéphane PÉRIER | ASMB | 63 |
| 3 | Ian UPCOTT | ALD | 47 |
Aldwych were well represented at the first StarClass competition to be held in Champery Switzerland.
For full results go to www.shorttrackonline.info
National Trials - Sept 2007
The National Trials were held on 1-2 September 07 at Nottingham to select the National Junior and Seniors Squads for the coming season.
Aldwych skaters (9) were well represented with the trials largest entry for the trials 27 men and 16 ladies. Unfortunately Sarah Lindsey was unable to compete due to injury but the other Aldwych ladies gave good account of them selves by finishing in 2nd (Joanna Williams) 5th (Sally Conway) 16th (Georgina Conway). In the men's 7th (Ian Upcott), 11th (Stuart Loughrey), 12th (Gerard Williams), 13th (Hew Williams) and 27th (Robert Bailey).
Congratulations to all who made the Squad and with the coaching and training at Guildford for those who did not make the Squads this time, will do in the future.
Full results for
the National Trails results.
The 26th Léon Quaglia Trophy in Chamonix - August 2007
The 26th Léon Quaglia Trophy in Chamonix, France attracted the largest ever team of Aldwych skaters. With on-ice training sessions twice a day, and running and mountain biking competitions, the week was a great way for the Aldwych skaters to get into shape. The training clearly paid off, with Aldwych skaters Gary Leighs winning the Masters competition and Ian Upcott in placed 2nd in the senior category. The Aldwych team also did exceptionally well in the cycling event, with podium positions for Jenny Buckley, Gary Leighs and Stuart Lochrey.