Over Easter, Monique Hopkins (Y9), Emily Olthof (Y10) and Mikaela Macdonald (Y11) travelled to Brisbane to compete at the World Skate Oceania Speed Championships and all three came home with fantastic results to celebrate.

For Year 9 student Monique Hopkins, it was her first time competing internationally but she's no stranger to traveling for skating events. She has been all over New Zealand for various events and it is the traveling that she likes best. Monique came pretty close to getting a few medals at a national speedskating event in Palmerston North earlier in the year so this time she was really happy to come home with a bronze medal for the 3km Cadet Girls Relay. 

In talking about her medal Monique felt "pretty proud," she said. "Because my team was the bottom team and we still managed to get it," she continued. "There was definitely a lot of competition there from Australia."

Monique's strongest event is the 800m sprint and although training has eased off a bit for now, she's got her sights on the area championships in November. 

Emily Olthof is in Year 10 at Nayland College and this was her second time competing at the Oceanias and also her second time competing in Brisbane. Last year Emily competed at the Skate Australia National Speed Skating Championships where she raced in seven events ranging from 500m to 7km. She won five medals including gold in the 1 lap sprint, silver in the dual time trial, and bronze in the 1km, 2km and 7km races. Emily's results qualified her to enter the 2022 Oceanias, held in Timaru, where she won bronze in the individual time trial and gold in the relays.

This year, fourteen year old Emily moved up a grade, which meant that she was competing against older and faster skaters, including fellow Nayland College student Mikaela Macdonald who is in Year 11. Her team won bronze in the Junior Ladies 5km relay. 

When asked how Emily found her trip over to Brisbane she replied, "Very, very fun." 

"Everything is so different, the new experiences, I just love doing it," she said. 

With a mother who also skates, Emily was two years old when she first put on a pair of skates and she started competing when she was seven. In speaking about her passion for the sport Emily replied, "I love that it's different. It's not a super common sport so when people hear about it, I think it's really cool and it's just unique."

Emily is also working towards the area championships in Timaru, aiming to skate fast enough to qualify for the next national event. 

Fifteen year old Mikaela Macdonald has competed nationally and internationally at a number of events and places including Indonesia in 2019 and Argentina in 2022. With too many medals to name and count, she is training hard for the World Roller Games in Italy later this year.

When asked what she enjoyed most about the recent competition, Mikaela highlighted the social aspect of getting to meet new people. She enjoyed the competition and felt good about her results. 

Mikaela's results:

• 2nd in Junior Ladies 15km Elimination
• 2nd in Junior Ladies 10km Points
• 2nd in Junior Ladies 42km Marathon
• 1st in Junior Ladies 5km Team Relay

The three girls train with the Nelson Roller Sports Club who run training sessions six days per week with all ages represented, from Emily's brother who has just started at five years old, right up to parents and adults who are passionate about their sport. Monique, Emily and Mikaela were the only students from the Nelson region who attended the World Skate Oceania Speed Championships so it was an awesome achievement to qualify and all come home with a medal or four!

Congratulations again to each of you and all the best for your upcoming competitions!