Close fights on a wet ground

Hot and muggy, not very comfortable for athletes, that’s how people know the coastal area of Incheon close to the International Airport of Seoul. But this WIC week-end it was completely different: a more northern European climate with rain and unpleasant winds from the sea. But the athletes were not too much impressed by this. However, they needn’t think about what tires to use, as the weather forecast had nothing positive to report. In spite of this the athletes started in a very ambitious way and the numerous spectators saw thrilling fights of the professional skaters in order to top the ranking list of the World Inline Cup 2010.

Even shortly after the start, the ladies were caught up with the elite of the men, who henceforth spared no pains to become victorious. Almost as usual one advance followed the other. The whole Portuguese Roller Lagos team, the Spanish Marianistas as well as Rollerblade Speedodrom and the also completely starting Powerslide skaters showed some hard fights. The star of the Simmons-Schankel team, Joey Mantia, regarded everything very calmly, made several breakaways without hurrying but with a strong speed. Not long after they had started the rain stopped and the road surface could dry a little bit. Thus it was possible to increase speed especially in the bends. The Powerslide Team around the current World Cup leader Scott Arlidge and the second of last year Yann Guadyer had been supported by Kalon Dobbin and used this in a tactical way. But also the French athletes Thomas Boucher and Mathieu Grandgirard as well as the Austrian Jacob Ulreich from the Austrian Rollerblade Team worked hard and joined in the fight for the victory.

The track, although almost flat without many bends, was difficult to manage, as there were strong headwinds on the semi-endless long line along the coast. Thus a group of nine skaters, among them four Koreans, turned into the long downwards sloping finish line. Powerslide started a burst of speed and it looked as if the two speed specialists would make the race. But they had not thought of Joey Mantia who thwarted the plans of all. He came from the back, began to gain momentum, pulled away from the others and won clearly before Yann Guyader, Scott Arlidge and a surprisingly good Thomas Boucher. The Korean Jaemin Jung followed on position five before Kalon Dobbin and the other Korean athletes Young Hoon Lee, Minsuk Jung and Wusan Cho.

For the ladies it was not possible to reach such high average speeds as the men, but nevertheless, they fighted hard, too. The Koreans made a good tactical race and spelled each other at breaking away. That’s why it had also been a very hard race for the Powerslide ladies around the Colombian superstar Cecilia Baena and the French Nathalie Barbotin as well as for the Alessi Team with Giovanna Turcchiarelli and Martina Taruscia, always fearing to drop back and be discouraged. Nicole Begg starting for X-Tech Asien and Renata Karabova of the IDEEE Print X-Tech team ran in a good tactical way, mostly avoiding any skirmish. Unfortunately the Slovakia Renata, running for IDEEE Print X-Tech since this year, had to kiss the dust, what makes her lose some crucial seconds.

Although Cecilia always tried to demonstrate how strong she is, the Korean Insun almost succeeded in duping the whole world elite: She broke away only a few kilometres before the finish and only the hot pursuit of Nathalie Barbotin from Powerslide made it possible to catch up with her before the finish line. Then a pure dramatic fight followed on the endlessly long finish line. Chechy had to fight very hard to beat the Korean Seul Lee and also Nicole Begg had to summon up all her strength to send Nana Lee to position four. With Ju Hee Lim another Korean followed on position five so that the Italian Giovanna Turchiarelli from the Alessi team had to be satisfied with the thankless sixth position. In spite of the weather conditions and the downfall of Renata everything went all right and we have to say a big thank you to the people around the ESA director and president Chan-Wook Jang for organizing this WIC race for the seventh time. Everything was planned and carried out in a perfect and highly professional way. Thanks to the most important Korean newspaper, the Jong-Bo Daily News, too. They just had made it possible to hold the World Inline Cup Incheon 2010. As agreed on, 2011 is almost at the planning stage since today – we look forward to seeing you in Incheon next year.