Stunning nationals perfomance by young skater | Manawatu-Wanganui Sport | Surfing, Rugby, Soccer, Football, Cricket in Manawatu-Wanganui

Wanganui speed skating coach Gary Clark must have experienced some very mixed feelings as he watched his 10-year-old protégé Judah Kelly annihilate her competition at the weekend's Banked Track Nationals in Hastings.

Kelly easily won all four national juvenile girls (not yet 11) titles on offer and broke three long-standing national records in the process. However proud Clark was that his young star was making good on her potential, he must have been ruing the fact that Kelly and her family are moving to Dunedin to live at the end of this week.

The opportunity to develop a talent like Kelly's only comes to a coach on the rare occasion.

However Clark perhaps has less cause for complaint in this regard than other coaches judging by the performances of his other charges.

Renee Nyman again dominated the intermediate girls (not yet 17) class, winning the 300m time-trial, the 500m in a new national record and the 1000m.

As they did at the Road Nationals in January, Wanganui team-mates Jessica Van Bentum and Rebecca Smith dominated the junior girls (not yet 15) titles. Van Bentum again won the overall title with wins in the 300m time-trial and the 500m and silver in the 1000m and 3000m.

Smith won the 3000m points title and harried some of the intermediate class skaters home to take top junior spot in the 10K points and 15K elimination open events. Only Emily van der Hayden of South Canterbury was able to break their grip on the class, winning the 1000m.

Sam Kelly showed the benefits of a further month's training and improved on hisnNationals performance by taking a brilliant silver in the junior boys 300m time-trial and a bronze in the 500m.

Krystine Davies won the Masters 3000m in a new national record time and also took gold in the 5000m. However Gary Clark managed to overcome injury to grab the 1000m title from Davies and Christchurch's Greg Gurau.

In the senior B, Wanganui's Andrew Jones dominated the shorter distances by winning the 300m TT, the 500m the 3000m and the 1000m. Paul Cleeve picked up a silver in the time trial and had a lock on third place in other events until Amy Hoggarth in her first national event piped him for the bronze in the 1000m.

Six-year-old Aiden Berryman won his first national medal with a silver in the primary boys class. A fitting reward for some determined efforts.

The speed skating season now winds down except for the six Wanganui skaters selected to race the Oceania competition in April at the same Hastings venue.