A skater’s preview to the World Speed Skating Championships

The World Speed Skating Championships begin in Belgium today. (Getty Images)

World Speed Skating Championships, Oostende, Belgium:

As a member of the Indian team, the next two weeks promise great excitement as we get to rub shoulders with the “rock stars” of the sport, who are fully prepared to wow the crowds and break every record ever created. Given that speed skating is not a very well-known sport in India, here is a brief look into the sport:

Roller speed skating is similar to cycling in many ways. The races are similar and so is the way the participants run them – in a peloton or a long line, with frequent attacks from all sides in order to overtake.

What makes the sport special is the combination of things like high speeds, high risk and the complexity of the races. There are races on both track (made of a synthetic material that provides for both high speed as well as grip) and road.

There are specific races of varied distances on both these surfaces. Some races are simple to understand, where the first person to complete the distance wins. Some, on the other hand, are more complicated.

In the point-to-point race, the winner is based on points collected by each skater throughout the race. There are designated “point laps”, at the end of which the first and second skaters who finish that lap, get two points and one point respectively. In this extremely demanding 10km event – that requires high energy levels as well as a great deal of strategic thinking – the skater accumulating the most points at the end wins.

Another race unique to skating is the elimination race. In this 15km race, there are elimination laps, at the end of which the skater who finishes last is eliminated. Finally, only five skaters finish the race. Both the points and elimination races are skated on both the types of surfaces, and form the long distance races in the sport along with the marathon, which is a 42km event.

Then there are the short distance races with the 300m, 500m and 1000m races on the rink and the 200m, 500m on the road. Among these, the 300m and 200m are time trial events, while the remaining are straightforward races.

The best skaters from dozens of countries have all travelled to the World Championships, hoping to see their national flags raised behind them on the victory podium. The 10 days at Oostende would be the most important dates marked on any skater’s calendar for the past year. How the championships will compare to those that came before it, we will have to see. All we can be sure of is that it’s going to be exciting.

The countries to watch out for – the powerhouses, so to speak – are Columbia, USA, China, Korea and Taipei. Besides these nations, there are some individually brilliant performers from the USA, New Zealand and some of the European countries like Germany, France and Italy.

Today is the first official day of the Worlds with the opening ceremony. The Indian contingent, which is one of the bigger groups of skaters, will be marching in white. There are 19 of us in all, across four age groups of Junior Men and Women (15-19 years) and Senior Men and Women (19 years plus).

The team was put together based on their performance at the selection trials held in Virar, Mumbai earlier this year, by the Roller Skating Federation of India, the apex body governing this sport. Eligibility for the trials itself was determined by the skaters’ achievements in the last two National Championships.

I look forward to participating in and watching my first ever World championships in this charming little beach town.