With one of the largest gathering of skaters and spectators ever seen at an Indoor Championships (reaching over the 200 mark) it truly was a successful day, not only for the Essex based club, but for the ever growing sport of Inline Speed Skating, which is up again for the second time to be voted on for Olympic Inclusion by the International Olympic Committee in 2013.

The national event saw 3 club members gain national titles, with Maya Bathgate (Girls 10-12) claiming 3 Individual Gold Medals in the 100m Time Trial, 300m Sprint & 800m Distance event, rounding off her superb display by teaming up with Louise Sullivan (Girls 13-15) to claim the Pupil/Cadet Girls relay Gold, in a new British Record time.  Conor Mullins (Boys 13-15) also bagged himself a National Title in the 100m Time Trial, beating all challengers with a new age group British Record.

Outside of the gold rush, Silver & Bronze medals were also claimed by other members, with Louise and Conor also adding to their national titles, with Louise claiming 2 Silvers & a Bronze whilst Conor followed his time trial gold with a further 2 Bronze medal performances.  Rebecca Coombes (Girls 6-9) & Bobby Ball (Boys 10-12) medalled on their Championship debuts, with Rebecca skating her way to Bronze and Bobby earning himself 2 medals, in the shape of Silver and Bronze.  Jordan Woodward (Boys 10-12) was also able to pick up a Bronze medal in the 100m time trial, with Errol Spence & Jon Morrison claiming a final Silver medal in the mens 3000m Relay, in the last event of the day.  A special mention to Emily Aquino (Girls 10-12), who alongside Rebecca & Bobby, also made her championship debut and finished just outside of the medals.

With the close of the Indoor Championships, the Outdoor Season will now begin, with the next race being held in London at the Tatem Park Track (Hedge Lane, Enfield) on the 22nd April.  Spectators can watch the racing for free, and if you bring your own skates and cycle helmet you can join in the fun races on the day.

If you are interested in learning how to skate, the clubs runs a 4 week skating program on Monday nights at the Sk8ters Roller Rink, Madison Heights in Maldon.  For more information you can call the rink directly on 01621 850222 or contact the clubs manager, Mr Alan Moore on 07535432165.

The multi purpose track will be so helpful for all different sporting types. We do not need any more football pitches. Support us and get something NEW and DIFFERENT in Woodham!

Our local council have released £90k for a skateboard park so we would like a skating track to be included.

Possibly one of the BIGGEST reasons for the track to go ahead, is the fact the International Olympic Commitee have nominated Roller Sports for Olympic inclusion again, and the vote to whether it makes it in for the 2020 Games is to be held in 2013!

Together with the Rink in Maldon, the new rink in Rochford - this can make Essex THE place to be a skater! Please support the project, and help make a lot of dreams come true! Football can be played anywhere, Skaters NEED this to happen!

Roller skating for years has always been popular, not just with the younger generation but with all ages. It is now very much a competitive sport. South Wooodham Ferrers should be proud that it has produced, via a skating club of theirs, British Champions, International Champions, numerous medal holders, and appearances on television on the BBC1 channel in Skate Nation and Sportsround, plus an Essex Young Sports Personality of the Year award.

Surely we should be rewarded with better skating facilities and it would certainly encourage more people and families in the area to participate as a sport or a hobby.

Please click this link to join our Facebook group >> Project Community Skate Park

Jon Morrison is one of our members and he has just started his own personal blog

He says the goal of this blog is to document his thoughts on my training/racing experiences, as he attempts to restart his Inline Speed Skating career after what was a lengthy absence, due to a re-occuring lower back injury and his degree studies (both of which are over with now!).

An excellent insight into the life and training of UK inline speed skater.

The link: jonmorrisonskating.blogspot.com

Venue:

SK8TERS
Madison Heights
Park Drive
Maldon
Essex
CM9 5JQ

Click Here For Madison Heights Website
View Map

Yet again, the team at SWFRSC have done the business, brought home the silverware from both sides of the Channel at the conclusion of another very successful outdoor season for the Club.

Following on from previous, successful outdoor meetings in the event calendar, the team competed at the British Outdoor Championships, held in Birmingham on 3rd and 4th July coming away with a cache of medals and trophies.

In the Mini Girls, age 6-9, Maya Bathgate continued her run of successes, taking Gold and the British Title in both the 500M and 1000M distances; and a Silver in the 200M Time Trial.

In the Pupil Girls, age 10-12, Alice Rydzik, competing in her first ever Championships took the Silver medal in the 3000M elimination event.

Louise Sullivan competed in the Cadet Girls category, age 13-15, narrowly missing out on the medal positions but fighting hard all the way.

The Junior Boys category, was dominated yet again by the duo of Robert Whiting and Daniel Smith, who between them took all 5 Gold Medals, with Robert taking Gold and the British Titles in the 1000M, 5000M elimination and 10,000M points, and winning a Bronze Medal in the 200M Time Trials; and Daniel taking Gold and the British Titles in the 200M Time Trial and 500M, and Silver Medals in the 1000M, 5000M elimination and 10,000M points.

Following on from their success throughout the season, both Maya and Robert were individually awarded ‘Overall British Champion for 2010’, in their respective age groups.

On 8th August, Errol Spence, competed in the Goodwood Roller Marathon, held at the Goodwood Motor Racing Circuit.

He completed the 26.62 Miles in 1 hour 12 mins 29 seconds to take the Gold Medal and thereby winning the Marathon 2 years in succession.

Success travels across the Channel too….as members of the Club also competed in International events in Belgium and France.

In August, the Club took part in a 3-day race meeting held in Zandvoorde, Belgium, competing on Friday evening, Saturday and Sunday. This is a very popular event and approximately 300 skaters compete in the various age groups. This makes for extremely competitive racing, and in the Mini Girls category – Maya showed her power and determination against her European rivals to take the Bronze medal.

The success was to continue when the team travelled to Zemst in Belgium in September where they competed in a 2-day event. The first day’s races took place on the track, whilst the second day’s racing took place on a road circuit. Again, the skaters took it in their stride, and this time there was to be reason for a triple celebration, with Errol taking Gold in the Veterans (age 35+), Robert won his first International, taking Gold in the Senior Mens category, and Maya was to add to her ‘International’ collection by taking Silver in the Mini Girls category.

Errol was also a member of a 5-skater team who competed in the Enduro 24 hour Rollers held at Le Mans. The event is an endurance race, whereby the team members skate continually in rotation for 24 hours, and they came a very respectable 9th overall, in what is one of the most demanding events in the calendar.

The Club has had another extremely successful season, and will be training hard through the winter in readiness for the 2011 season.

Pictured with the Championship and International trophies and awards won this year:

In 2009 Maya, along with 3 other club members stared in the CBBC’s Skate-Nation, a competition on the BBC where each week a themed dance routine was choreographed for them to skate before one group being voted on by the judges and children’s audience each week. They managed 7 weeks before being voted out, the week before the semi-finals.

Maya’s International tally of trophies are growing considerably with her recent results at the International meeting in Zandvoorde, Belgium. Having the reputation of the being the toughest International, and still in the youngest group, she fought off some stiff competition from 20 other competitors from Belgium, Netherlands and Denmark, to finish the weekend in third overall. She also has another 3 International trophies from Belgium competitions and 1 from Rouen, France.

Maya has also done exceptionally well at home competitions this year wining all but one of her British Championships - Indoor, Marathon, 500m & 1000m, being awarded the overall Mini Girls British Champion 2010.  In February of this year Maya was nominated for a Sports award, along with 3 other sporting hopefuls. She was invited along to a gala dinner where she was told she had received 52% of the votes and was awarded the Young Sports Personality of the Year 2010. Maya will be competing at her last track and road International this Season in September at Zemst, Belgium, we wish her the best of luck.

Through her own dedication and hard work she has achieved so much already at such a young age.

To conclude an already very successful indoor season, the Team competed in the British Indoor Championships in April, where they took part in inter-club category races over various distances, with excellent results:

The day began with the younger skaters, and this is where the trend for the success of the day began… Maya Bathgate competed in the Mini Girls age category. The race was tough as Maya took a tumble early on, but she got to her feet and fought hard to pick up places and get to the front of the pack, to eventually take the Gold Medal.

Jordan Woodward competed in the Mini Boys age category, making a very welcome return after taking a short break from the sport. He raced hard and took a well-earned Gold Medal too.

Bethaney Galloway competed in the next age category, Pupil Girls, in her first ever competitive race for the Club. She put in a great effort and finished 4th, a promising start to the 2010 season.

The second of our skaters making a return to the sport this year after a short break was Taylor Scott, who competed in the Pupil Boys age category. Again, this was a hard fought race and Taylor rose to the challenge and took the Gold Medal.

Louise Sullivan, just returning from a recent injury, competed in the Cadet Girls age category. She raced well and finished in 5th place.

The final age category the Club competed in was the Junior Boys, where the now familiar team-mate duo of Daniel Smith and Robert Whiting were to once again take the double, with Daniel winning the Gold Medal and Robert taking the Silver.

Also skating, in the ‘non-category’ race was Kiara Woodward, who took part in her first ever race meeting. Kiara is the newest member of the Club and has only just started her weekly training sessions. One for the future….