COVID-19 Update: Indoor training has resumed as of Saturday 22nd May 2021 in line with lockdown easing guidelines. Sessions are 5-7pm at Skaters, Walpole Highway and are £6 per person.
There are still rules in place as we resume. Upon arrival at the rink, facemasks must be worn. Please meet in the cafe, if there is room to do so, as there is a public session on up to 5pm. This will give rink staff time to sanitise tables and chairs and clean the rink. The wearing of facemasks is encouraged whilst not skating. Spectators are required to wear facemasks and observe social distancing at all times.
We look forward to welcoming our regular speed skaters and newcomers back to the rink for some much-needed exercise!
Huge congratulations to multiple British champion, Eve McInerney, who completed her World Skate International Coaching Level 1 course in early 2021, to become a new addition to WISS coaches, and making good use of being off skates during the pandemic!
Our AGM is being held on Monday 5th October at 630pm at Skaters Roller Rink, Walpole Highway. This is open to anyone who wishes to attend. The meeting will be held on the rink, with chairs set out 2mts apart and will be sanitised beforehand. There are also sanitising stations located around the building for your safety. Face masks must be worn at all times until seated, after which time they are optional. The agenda will be posted on our social media pages, so please keep an eye out.
In line with the latest Government guidelines, we are now happy to announce that socially distanced club training has now resumed! Indoor training is at Skaters 5-7pm on Saturdays. We have an appointed Covid-19 Officer, namely Jenny Barker, who will be taking a register of all attendees at each training session, and offering advice and ensuring guidelines are adhered to, assuring everyone's safety at the rink. All surfaces are sanitised before and after each training session. Non-contact exercises will be carried out and there are sanitising stations located around the rink for your safety. Face masks are mandatory whilst off the rink, and skaters will be in groups of six on the rink. A full risk assessment has been carried out and is available here once finalised.
The inline speed skating Indoor British Championships were held at Wisbech Inline Speed skating club's home track at Skaters Roller rink in Walpole Highway at the weekend. Skaters from across the country, including Birmingham, Essex, East Midlands, London, South Woodham Ferrers and Ashbourne took part in the annual event. The 14-strong West Norfolk team proved a force to be reckoned with at their home track.
Starting off the day were the flying lap dobbin sprints. Mike McInerney put in a blistering lap time of 7.94 seconds to beat all competition on the day and took the British Champion crown. Ten year old Leah Barker was awarded the win in her category for the dobbin sprint after arch rival Sophie Cook from SWF crashed out and Leah proved faster than the rest of the Pupil Girls. Karl Bates in the Masters Men category found himself on the top spot in the dobbin sprint after the top three finished within 4 hundredths of a second of each other.
Kirby Barker, the youngest skater of the Wisbech team, made a clean sweep in each of his races in the Mini Boys to become British Champion four times over, as did Arthur Buckler in the Pupil Boys category. Flynn McGurk , skating on his own in the Junior Boys category, pulled the pin and beat the standing results to earn himself an overall British Championship win. Also winning all her races was Lucy McInerney, beating her East Midlands rival with ease.
Taylor Barker put in a very impressive display in the Pupil Boys category, chasing the tail of Arthur Buckler and finishing in second place in each race.
Mike McInerney found himself disqualified in his final race after a rash move on the inside from rival Dan King took the pair out on a corner in their fast 1,500mts race.
The final events of the day were the relay races. Taylor and Arthur paired up and destroyed the opposition in an impressive display, to finish in first place. Twin sisters Lucy and Eve McInerney also put in a strong display to take the victory in the Ladies relay race. The final race was the Men’s relay race, which saw Mike McInerney and Flynn McGurk team up once more to take the win with ease.
The team earned themselves 21 gold medals with 25 British titles for Indoors 2020.
The 2020 Indoor British Champions are Leah Barker, Kirby Barker, Arthur Buckler, Taylor Barker, Flynn McGurk, Lucy McInerney, Eve McInerney, Mike McInerney, Karl Bates.
WISS hosted their club race at Skaters roller rink in Walpole Highway at the weekend. The event proved a good turnout with clubs from Birmingham, East Midlands, Essex, Colchester, Ashbourne, South Woodham Ferrers and London and some very close racing. Each category had 3 races each, a short sprint, a middle distance and a long distance, finished off with 25 lap and 50 lap mass start races for two different categories. Taylor Barker (cat 3), Arthur Buckler (cat 2) and Karl Bates (masters) all triumphed in each of their races to win overall in their categories, with Mike McInerney also winning overall in Cat 1 after two second places and a win in the long distance race. Kirby Barker (cat 3) and Flynn McGurk (cat 1) finished overall in 2nd place in their respective categories after very strong performances by both, battling for position on track. Newcomer Paris Sherwood (cat 5) and Luke Frary in the masters category both took home a medal each for overall 3rd in the categories. The main events were the mass start races. First up was the 25 lap McInerney trophy race, which saw Taylor and Kirby Barker complete the race in 1st and 2nd place, with their sister, Leah, finishing in a very strong 5th place, each holding their nerve and strength in the gruelling distance race. Finally came the 50 lap Doggett trophy race. With 18 skaters on the start line, it was a very busy race. Race winner Gibran Ghazali from London, won by getting the holeshot and leading from start to finish with the rest of the pack finding themselves a lap down early on. The fast-paced race saw WISS skaters MIke McInerney in 2nd place, with Flynn McGurk in 5th and Arthur close behind in 6th. The club welcomed new skaters into racing, with Rookie Ben Walden making his race debut in Cat 5, and Lola Sherwood, William Horspool and Ronnie making their debut in the rat races.
Youngsters from Wisbech Inline Speed Skating club travelled over to Evergem in Belgium for the first European race event of the year. Fresh from success at Derby a few weeks ago, the foursome brought home some excellent results. Kirby Barker and Arthur Buckler led each of their four races from start to finish. Arthur has experienced success at this event in the past and continued to to dominate in the Scholar Boys category, with Kirby leading the Pupil Boys category. Leah Barker fought hard in the Pupil Girls category to earn four amazing second places. Taylor Barker had a very competitive field in the Scholar Boys category and finished in 5th overall.
The team kick started their 2020 season with a stunning display in Derby at the East Midlands Club indoor race event over the weekend. The 11-strong team showed a masterful display in each of the six categories. The day started off with Flying lap sprints, where much of the team gained personal best times over last year's results, with Kirby Barker showing the biggest improvement in time by a whopping two seconds. Coach Mike McInerney made the best time of the event across all categories with a time of 9.619 seconds.In Cat 5, rookie youngster, Paris Sherwood, proved not to be fazed by more experienced skaters and finished each of her races.
In Cat 4, Leah Barker got the holeshot at the start of her two races and led from start to finish, briefly dicing with rookie racer Kieran Taylor for first place. Kieran proved a force to be reckoned with for the rest of the pack as he fought hard for 1st and 2nd place during each race and finished in two very strong second places in his first indoor race event.
In Cat 3, Taylor Barker was fighting at the front for first place in race 1 and then led comfortably for the whole of race 2. Meanwhile, behind him, his younger brother Kirby pipped rival Ethan Smith on the line to take 3rd place. In race 2, finding himself languishing in 6th place, Kirby found his feet and moved up the pack and battled for second place. The two brothers narrowly missed an on-track spill, with Kirby managing to jump over the stricken skaters! Taylor and Kirby took first and second place respectively. In Cat 2, Pupil Boys British Champion Arthur Buckler led comfortably all races, with Lewis Rose from EMR following behind him.
In two fast races for Cat 1, Mike McInerney took comfortable victories in both after he broke from the pack during the final laps. Flynn McGurk, also in Cat 1, finished in a strong third place in race 1. An on-track incident in Race 2 saw him lose a strong 2nd position to finish in 6th place. Finally, the Masters category saw David Billington and Karl Bates take a win a-piece in each race after dicing for the lead all race long. Jo Tidman fielded the back of the Masters pack to take a third place in the ladies races. The team took home a total of 14 first places, 8 second and 7 third place finishes with Leah, Taylor, Arthur, David and Mike taking overall category wins.
The awards keep coming! The club are pleased to announce that multiple British Champion Arthur Buckler has won the Roger Green sports award 2019/20. Roger Green was a former Wisbech town Mayor and sports editor for the Wisbech Standard for 11 years before becoming the editor for the Wisbech Standard. The award is presented annually to a local young athlete who has gone the extra mile and made significant achievements in their chosen sport.
Arthur was presented with his award and certificate at a formal presentation evening held at the Queen Mary Centre on Friday the 24th January 2020.
Congratulations Arthur, well deserved.
The club are happy to announce that two members have been selected for the Team GB Development Squad. Ten year old Arthur Buckler joins team mate Flynn McGurk for the 2020 season.
The pair are regularly on the podium at race events, have multiple British titles to their names and have broken records along the way.
Flynn started his Team GB experience last year by competing at the Flanders Grand Prix and Arthur is multiple overall winner at Zemst in Belgium, Gros Gerau in Germany and the Flanders Grand Prix in Holland.
Congratulations to both!
FISS have announced this week that WISS coach Mike McInerney has been appointed as Team GB Development Manager and Glen Brown will be Team GB Development Coach, working closely with Adrian Wordsworth of North London Skaters. They will be responsible for the technical development of potential national team skaters and will create a pathway for younger skaters as future member of Team GB. They have a wealth of experience between them, both being British champions, record holders and having skated in European and World competitions and are looking forward to the challenge of bringing young skaters up through the ranks for Team GB.
The club topped off their hugely successful 2019 season with an award at the regional Living Sport Sports Awards ceremony in November. They were awarded Community Club of the Year after they were joint first place winners along with Three Counties Running Club at the glittering event. Now in its 14th year, the Living Sport Sports Awards recognises and celebrates the achievements of talented sportsmen and women, coaches, volunteers, organisations and clubs from across the Peterborough and Cambridgeshire area.
The award for the club comes after an eventful 2019 season which saw them travel around the UK to compete in events from Birmingham to Bath and as far south as Kent, along with trips across to Spain, Germany and The Netherlands to represent Team GB and the WISS club. They brought home a massive haul of 109 British Championship medals, 49 British Championship titles, 6 new British records, 53 club race wins and had a total of 11 British Champions in the form of Leah, Arthur, Flynn, Eve, Lucy, Kayleigh, David, Mike, Luke, Taylor and James.
They competed in races ranging in distance from 100mt time trial sprints to 26 mile marathons and had a six hour endurance race thrown in for good measure!
Team coach Glen Brown was joined on stage by former European champion, Mike McInerney, and the club media representative, Jo Tidman, to collect the award. Glen praised the club, saying it was "a great sport with great people" and continues to grow with "members ages ranging from 5 to 65". Jo added that the club travels across the UK and parts of Europe to compete regularly throughout the year. Club secretary, Amanda McGurk, said afterwards, "We didn't expect to win the award, just being nominated was a lovely achievement in itself. The win reflects the hard work everyone has put in this year."
Wisbech Inline Speed Skaters have closed the 2019 outdoor season in fine style at the outdoor British Championships at the weekend in Gravesend. The track was tough and the weather was hot, proving a challenge for all, but every member of the team that took part in the 26 mile marathon managed to complete the course.
Mike McInerney, after his success in the World Roller Games marathon at Barcelona, finished in overall third place with a time of 1hour 20 mins. Hot on his heels was Warren Eve who finished his 4th marathon of the year with an impressive time of 1hour 24mins, finishing in second place in the Junior Boys category. Eve and Lucy McInerney, Luke Frary and Karl Bates all completed their first marathon race of the year all in less than 1hour 44mins, with Lucy taking the win in the Junior Girls category. Arthur Buckler finished in 1st place and broke the record for the 8kms race in the Pupil Boys category (pending confirmation). Masters Men skater, Luke Frary, smashed the 100mt sprint British record (pending confirmation) with a time of 11.433 seconds, taking the second best time of the day.
Leah Barker, Eve McInerney, Flynn McGurk and Arthur Buckler all picked up their trophies for overall British Champions of 2019 in their age categories.
The day also saw the fourth and final race event for the Roller Road Series with overall champions being awarded. Arthur, Lucy, Flynn and Warren all picked up their trophies, with Arthur and Warren being the only two skaters of the club to compete in all four events.
Lucy McInerney was awarded "Most Improved Female Skater" of 2019 and Arthur Buckler became "Most Promising Young Skater of 2019" by FISS.
Wisbech Inline Speed Skaters took part in the annual Outdoor British Championships at the weekend in changeable weather conditions and came home triumphant with a total of nine British Champions and a whopping fifty six medals!
The track was damp but that didn't deter youngster Leah Barker, who was the first to be crowned British Champion of the weekend in the Mini Girls category after securing a 1st place spot in her 500mts in a dead heat finish and two very close second places in her other race and the time trial which put her in first overall as her rival was from Hong Kong and therefore a non-national. Her sibling Kirby Barker showed much improvement and skated a mature set of races after competing amongst 6 other young skaters to finish in second place overall in the Mini Boys category. Arthur Buckler celebrated his tenth birthday over the weekend by winning all four of his events to be crowned overall British Champion in the Pupil Boys category. Taylor Barker in the same category suffered a huge tumble in the 3,000mts race, but picked himself up and continued his race and finished in third place to secure a medal, which he was very happy about despite the pain. Luke Frary, in the Masters Men category, took an impressive gold medal in the 300mt time trial while Lucy McInerney pipped her twin sister Eve to the victory in the time trial by just three tenths of a second. Eve went on to make a clean sweep in their other four races in their Junior Girls category to become Junior Girls overall British Champion.
Warren Eve put on an incredible display in the Junior Boys category finishing second in his 1k, 3k and 5k races against a very strong field of competitors. Flynn McGurk and James Eve finished in 1st and 2nd places respectively in all four of their races in the Youth Boys category with Flynn being crowned overall champion.
In the relay races, WISS boys Arthur Buckler, Taylor Barker and James Garwell took the victory by more than 13 seconds over their rivals from Ashbourne and were faster than the all-time record by 20 seconds (pending confirmation).
The McInerney twins were joined by Kayleigh Rye in her maiden outdoor championships race event to take part in the relay race. They were the only team on the track, so had to beat a previous time of 5mins and 5 seconds to take the gold. The did it in 5mins 3 seconds with a stunning performance and took a new British record (pending confirmation). In the Senior mens relay race, there were two WISS teams. The race was hectic from start to finish and WISS A, made up of Mike McInerney, Warren Eve and Flynn McGurk, finished in 3rd place, just three seconds behind the winners from Birmingham.
In total the team took home 23 gold, 15 silver and 18 bronze medals, nine British Champions for 2019 and four overall Category British Champions.
Wisbech speed skater Mike McInerney took to the road in Barcelona, Spain at the weekend to race against the world's best in the highly anticipated Masters marathon race event. This was the final speed skating event of the week-long World Roller Games and proved to be the most exciting, joining the 13-strong GB team at the games. The race was split into age categories with Mike in the men's under-50 category for the 26-mile race on the streets of Barcelona. With a total of 341 men on the start line in various age categories, the race was actioned-packed. Fifty skaters in the Open category finished within a minute of eventual race winner Beddiaf Nolan from France, who completed the race in a time of 1hour and 55 seconds. In the Masters category, four skaters made a break at the front and Mike was left with the remaining pack. He sprinted to the line to finish in fifth place in a time of 1 hour and 8 minutes, 6 minutes behind the Masters category winner. The result means that Mike holds the highest finishing position in a single race for the GB team, just shy of the podium. The result also sees Mike obtain a PB over his marathon result from last year at the British Marathon Championships, which was completed in a time of 1 hour and 13 minutes. Mike said afterwards, "Thanks for everyone's support and help in getting me fit!" after the team were full of praise and congratulations for the veteran skater.
Photo credit: Diccon Scrivens
Wisbech Speed Skaters re-visited Tatem Park in Enfield for the final race event before the British Championships held later this month. Eleven skaters competed in the summer sunshine and put on a strong display after training hard this summer. Siblings Leah and Taylor Barker finished in consistent second places in all three of their race events to take overall second in Categories 3 and 4 respectively. In Category 2 Lucy McInerney fought hard to take two wins and a third place gaining an overall first in Category 2. Warren Eve skating in Category 1, took two third places to finish overall third after a very strong performance in the 5,000mts elimination race, hot on the heels of Mike McInerney who gained first overall in Cat 1. In age categories, all minis and pupils took part in a new 'Last Man Standing' race which saw 9 year old Arthur Buckler smash the competition with an effortless first place. After some deliberation, Youths Flynn McGurk and James Eve were permitted to join the Juniors, Seniors and Masters in their 'Last Man Standing' race. Mike McInerney eased to victory and took the top spot with Flynn McGurk putting in an impressive performance to gain third place.
Wisbech speed skater, Michael McInerney, will take to the world stage next week in the forthcoming World Roller Games in Barcelona where he has been selected to represent Great Britain in the speed skating Masters Marathon of 26 miles. The race is the final event of the Roller Games and is being held in the city centre where the organisers are expecting huge crowds in attendance. It is a hotly anticipated finale with more than 1,200 skaters competing for the coveted titles in the various categories. Michael is back from injury at the European Masters marathon in London in June when he was forced to pull out of the competition after completing just a handful of miles, so he is fit and strong and eager to make amends after the bitter disappointment in London. "I have been training more or less every day since January for this, so to finish the way I did was so disappointing" said Michael afterwards.
Skating since the age of six years old, Michael is no stranger to International competition. He became European Champion in 1987 after winning the 3,000mts event in France as well as being selected to represent Great Britain over the years and has competed in countries including Colorado Springs, Spain, The Azores, Sicily, Germany, Portugal, Holland, France and Belgium. He currently holds the British records in the Masters category for the 1,000mts, 3,000mts and 5,000mts track events, and 20,000kms in the Senior mens road series, and has 50 British titles to his name.
London's Olympic Park was the venue for this year's major event for our local skaters, Wisbech Inline Speed, for a major international event - the European Masters Marathon. Skaters from all over Europe travelled to the capital for this inaugural event. The WISS team made the most of the rarely held event, the last of such being held in 1998, and six members took part, all being in the age bracket of over 30.
Mike McInerney, the favourite to earn a podium position, sadly suffered an injury in the early part of the 26 mile race and had to pull out from competition. He was bitterly disappointed after training hard all winter for the event. David Billington, in the same race as Mike, finished just one lap shy of the 26 mile marathon, by completing 25 laps, while Jo Tidman, met her own personal goal of a half marathon distance of 13 miles. This being her first marathon event.
During the scorching heat of the afternoon sun, Luke Frary, Karl Bates and Graham Freear took to the track. Graham, the oldest skater of the team, was the only WISS skater to have completed a full marathon, while Karl finished just 6 laps after suffering from heatstroke. Luke managed an impressive 17 laps while carrying an injury from training.
The annual London Inline Marathon was held at the beginning of June at London's Olympic Park and two WISS members entered the half marathon of 13 miles, namely Lucy McInerney and Flynn McGurk. Lucy battled at the front in the ladies race with an epic sprint to the finish line and took the overall win by less than a skate length against competitors from Slovakia and Italy. Flynn, also battling against the Slovakian (mens) team, took 4th overall in the mens event after his rivals skated a tactical race, but he finished in second place in his age category and therefore took to the podium. Lucy was the only British female to make it onto the podium for the whole event.
The final of three back to back races was held on Sunday at Tatem Park in London and hosted some fantastic racing for local team, Wisbech Inline Speed Skaters. Eleven members of the team took to the smooth surface banked track, and every member of the team came home with a medal, displaying mature and experienced racing from all.
Kirby Barker, the youngest member of the whole competition showed how much he's improved by pipping the 3rd placed skater on the line in their 1,500kms race. He finished 3rd overall. Meanwhile, his brother, Taylor, put on an amazing display in Cat 3 to make a clean sweep of all three of his races to finish first overall.
Arthur Buckler was moved to a category higher (cat 2) and battled against far bigger skaters! He took an epic win in the 3,000mts and finished 3rd overall in the category. He then went on to win in the 2,000mts Pupil Boys age category race with Taylor finishing behind him in second. James Eve, also in Cat 2, showed consistency in his racing by finishing overall in 2nd place, making a sprint to the line in the 3,000mts race to finished 2nd.
Flynn McGurk and Warren Eve showed great strength by battling at the front of the highly competitive Category 1 pack with Mike McInerney during the 3kms race but finished just off the podium. Flynn, along with Lucy McInerney, finished the 5,000mts races in 1st places in each of their age categories with Warren a close second in the Junior boys category in the same race. Mike McInerney had an immense battle with Essex rivals Bobby Ball and Daniel King during the 5,000mts points race and finished in second place. He also took an overall third in Cat 1. Finally, the Masters skaters had a successful outing. Luke Frary and Karl Bates finishing in 2nd and 3rd respectively, with Luke taking a third place in the 5,000mts race. Jo Tidman made a clean sweep in all three of her races, to finish on the top step of the podium.
WISS entered three teams in the six hour endurance race last weekend, two all-male teams of 5 and 4 members, and an all-female team of 5 members and were competing against 20 other teams.
The female team did exceptionally well and took a well-earned victory. Eve and Lucy McInerney and Kayleigh Rye were joined by Maya Bathgate from Essex and Heather James from the Midlands. The girls set a best lap time of 4mins 6.396s, completing a total of 68 laps.
The men's teams were split into WISS A and WISS B. Team coach Glen Brown led WISS B team to an 8th place finish, completing 63 laps with a best lap time of 4mins 44.628s . He was joined by David Billington, Graham Freear and Mark Bingham, this being Mark's first ever outdoor race and only his second race with the team.
WISS A team was led by coach and veteran skater Mike McInerney and joined by Karl Bates and teenagers Warren Eve, Flynn McGurk and James Eve. They took third place on the podium behind two strong teams from Essex and London, finishing just three laps behind them. They completed a total of 78 laps and set their best time of 3mins 58.147s.
Birmingham was the venue for the first race of the outdoor season for local speed skating team, Wisbech Inline Speed. A team of ten skaters took to the track in dry conditions to bring home medals galore!
Competing in age categories, Arthur Buckler (Pupil Boys) made a clean sweep in all four of his races with team-mate Taylor Barker hot on his heels. Taylor showed great potential finishing with two second places and two fourths to narrowly miss out on a well deserved podium spot. Kirby Barker (Mini Boys) skated impressively to take an overall second place in his category.
Flynn McGurk (Youth Boys) and Warren Eve (Junior Boys) skated tactical races together achieving 1st place in each of their age categories with fellow teammate James Eve (youth) finishing in overall second place. Female skaters Leah Barker (Mini Girls) and Lucy McInerney (Junior Girls) also finished in first place in their respective age categories, Leah showing great determination despite carrying an injury from training. Mike McInerney took overall second place in the competitive Senior Men's races. The team were joined by Karl Bates (Senior Men) skating for the first time at Birmingham.
The prestigious Ladies Venus Cup 5k was up for grabs with Lucy McInerney gaining a solid second place. Similarly, the Mens Keith Lee Boot 10k race took place with youngsters James, Flynn and Warren all competing for the first time with team mate and coach Mike McInerney for the title. As always, Mike gave an impressive performance and narrowly missed out on the win to Vincent Henry on his home track.
Arthur Buckler completes his back to back European race events with a dominant display in Germany. He took part in the 1,000, 1,500 and 2,000mts Pupil B boys Category mass starts in treacherous conditions of wind and rain with other skaters crashing out around him. But the youngster from Wisbech held his nerve and emerged victorious in each race to become the overall winner of the category.
This comes after a positive display indoors at the first international event at Arena Geisingen in Holland a few weeks ago in the Pupil B boys category (a move up from last year's category with older and stronger skaters).
In that event he found himself in a fast second place in the Flying lap shootout, just three hundredths of a second behind the winning time and finished in overall 4th position in the event, equalling on points of third place.
Team mates Eve and Lucy McInerney also joined Arthur in Geisingen.
They also took some positives from the extremely competitive indoor event in the Junior Girls category racing with some of the best skaters in the world. Lucy gained herself a new Personal Best time after she improved her Flying lap 200mt sprint by 2 seconds over last year. Eve completed the 500mt sprint race in an impressive time of 48.773 seconds and found herself just 0.1 seconds off the qualifying time for the European Championships.
Photo: Adrian Wordsworth
Nottingham University was the venue for this year's Indoor Speed Skating British Championships where every member of the Wisbech team came home with at least one medal each, with a tally of 16 gold medals, 16 silver and 14 bronze medals . They also brought home seven British champions. Leah Barker was youngest member on the day to be crowned overall champion of the Mini Girls category with a hat-trick of wins, leading from the start in each race, the only WISS member to win all her races. Arthur Buckler battled it out at the front in the Pupil Boys category, finishing in second place in the Dobbin Sprint and first in his other two races to be crowned overall British Champion. Jo Tidman held comfortable second places across all three of her races in the Masters Ladies category. David Billington in the Masters Mens category took a tumble in race 3 and crossed the line in 3rd place, but still managed to finish as overall British Champion after winning his other two races. Taylor Barker took home three consistent third place finishes in the tough Pupil Boys category where he battled all the way for his well-earned podium places. His brother Kirby gained three podium places in the Mini Boys category. Flynn McGurk took the third overall fastest time of the day in the Dobbin Sprint and took gold in the Youth Boys category along with two second place finishes in his other two races, while fellow Youth Boys skater James Eve followed behind him in third place. Newcomer Kayleigh Rye skated well in her first British Championships event and finished in third place overall for the Youth Girls. Twin sisters Eve and Lucy McInerney took an incredible win in the Senior Ladies relay race winning ahead of their rivals by 3 laps. Coach and veteran racer Mike McInerney held the fastest time for the team in the Dobbin sprint 100mts flying lap with a time of 8.62 seconds, and battled hard in the 1,500mts race for a triumphant win.
The most eventful race of the day was the Senior Men's 30-lap relay race, where Mike McInerney and Flynn McGurk battled at the front with Essex rivals Bobby Ball and Dan King. Swapping the lead all race until an unfortunate crash involving Essex, saw Mike only just keep upright on eight wheels and crossed the line first to become relay champions for the second successive year. The Essex team were disqualified for a fault on track leaving the second WISS team of brothers Warren and James Eve to finish in second place.
WISS British Champions for 2019 are Leah Barker, Arthur Buckler, Flynn McGurk, Eve McInerney, Lucy McInerney, David Billington and Mike McInerney.
Three members of the team were presented with certificates for breaking records during 2018. These were Luke Frary for 100mts road race, James Eve in the 15km road race and Arthur Buckler for 100mts and 3,000mts road races and 800mts and 2,000mts track races.
Arthur Buckler flew the flag for WISS last weekend in Evergem, Belgium to compete in the annual indoor race meeting, the first international race of the 2019 season. The event is now in its 20th year and welcomed skaters from Belgium, Netherlands and Germany as well as UK representatives from Essex. The 9 year old took part in the Pupil Boys category of 4 races, 6, 8, 10 and 12 laps where he eased to victory in each to become Champion for the second successive year. Well done Arthur! A fantastic achievement.
Photo: Adrian Wordsworth
Three races per category, a dobbin sprint and newly introduced special trophies for two distance races were the order of the day at the weekend. The under 16's took part in a 25-lap race to compete for the McInerney Trophy, which Arthur Buckler won with James Eve hot on his heels. The 50-lap race for the Doggett Trophy was won by Flynn McGurk after Mike McInerney took a tumble with two laps to go. Warren Eve finished in third in the same race. Eve McInerney taking a triumphant win in the 3-lap sprint race in a very fast and tough Category 1. James Eve was very evenly matched with Arthur Buckler in Category 2 where the two boys shared 1st and 2nd places in the main events including the 25 lap race. Arthur finished in overall 1st with James a veryclose second place. In the Masters Mens category it was a whitewash of WISS podium places with David Billington in overall first place, Luke Frary in second and Karl Bates in third, while Jo Tidman took her maiden victories in two events which saw her take overall 1st place in the Masters Ladies. Kayleigh Rye made her race debut in an all-WISS category 2, where she finished in overall third place. The youngest team member, Kirby Barker, showed improvements in his racing and finished in overall third place against older and more experienced skaters. The dobbin sprints saw Mike McInerney triumph in 1st place with a time of 7.93 seconds with Flynn McGurk finishing in third place.
The team travelled to Derby for the first race of the 2019 season and proved to be an eventful day. The floor at the indoor skating rink in Derby was proving slippery for all racers and the event was littered with high speed spills. Nevertheless, the 12-strong Wisbech team brought home some positive results from the day. Arthur Buckler, Luke Frary and Mike McInerney all finished in overall 1st places in their respective categories. Six members improved their flying lap time from last year at the same track with Luke and Arthur shaving off almost a second from their times from last year. Other medallists were Karl Bates and Jo Tidman finishing in second place in their categories and James Eve finishing in overall third in his category. James being awarded a second position in his second race after an on-track incident left team-mate Lucy McInerney demoted to third. Flynn McGurk was disqualified early on in his second race of the day, a gruelling 6 minute race in the fastest category, robbing him of showing his potential. Warren Eve disappointingly crashed out of a solid third place in the same race with just two laps to go and narrowly missed out on a podium finish after a mature first race saw him finish in third. The day was finished off with an exciting 20 minute relay race which saw the Wisbech team take a comfortable win.