Scott Arlidge (left) wins in...

Haining 05 October 2011: Scott Arlidge (Powerslide Matter World, NZL) has won the men's WIC Grand Prix in a photo finish ahead of Severin Widmer (Swiss-Skate-Team, SUI). Yann GUYADER (Powerslide Matter World, FRA) led the sprint of the pack to complete the podium. In the women's Race YANG He Zhen (TWA) overpowered Guan Ying Rong (TWA) and Guo Dan (CHN) by less than a skate to take home the victory.

The ladies had experienced an all-tactical race until the final sprint, which left World Inline Cup Ranking Leader Nicole Begg (X-tech MPC-International, NZL) back in the field. Not being fully recovered from a cold she could not breath properly. But with Renata Karabova (IDEEprint-EOSKATES, SVK) and Melissa Chouleysko (IDEEprint-EOSKATES, FRA) coming in only two spots in front of her, she managed to seal her first World Inline Cup Championship as the best skater of combined 7 events this season.

On the men’s side the many spectators in Haining saw some more speed throughout the competition with lots of small attacks from various skaters. 5 km before the finish Severin Widmer and Scott Alridge managed to significantly break-away from the pack. “I am – like everybody – tiered at the end of the season, so I did not expect too much before the race. Now I am even more happy to win in Haining. I knew that if I can be in the leading group until the end there is a good chance in the final sprint,” Scott said after the race. And this is how it came out after 42 km: with the last four or five steps he secured the biggest share of the 30’000 USD in Prize Money and raised his arms crossing the finish line.

Severin Widmer was not too unhappy with being second, though, as this still lifted him on top of the World Inline Cup season end ranking as teammate Nicolas Iten (Swiss-Skate-Team, SUI) “only” finished 6th. The Swiss-Skate-Team won as well the men’s season team score, while on the women’s side this trophy will go to IDEEprint-EOSKATES.