[ Photo Gallery ] Article by Virus: Jenn | Daryl | Ethel

By Virus Ethel

Seoul World Inline Cup 2005

7 April 2005, Thursday Yeah....!! It's finally Thursday and I'm going to Seoul/Korea for my Seoul World Inline Cup (SWIC) race. I'm really excited, can't wait to run home after school. Yes, I still need to be at school during the day and rush to the airport in the evening! Argh...

It's my first time going to Korea in Spring and not Winter (Winter is where we go skiing in the mountains). I simply love it to bits, traveling with my crazy sister Jenn and equally mad Daryl will be loads of fun. In the airplane, I was so excited thinking of who I'd be able to meet and to get all their autographs. Wow... It's so cool that I can get to meet all the International athletes.

8 April 2005, Friday The SWIC welcome dinner guaranteed our success in collecting autographs from our favourite athletes. The moment we reached the venue, we were so busy taking photos and getting their autographs, that dinner was momentarily forgotten. I guess taking precious photos is a Virus thing. Haha.... Team Bont International, Fila, Solomon, KIA Motors, Powerslide and many more are now part of our collection.

9 April 2005, Saturday
Saturday morning was to be our maiden skate at Han River. On our way down the elevator, Jenn spotted a familiar figure - it's the legendary Chad Hedrick with his team mate Joey Mantia!! Wow!!!! We didn't see him at the dinner last night - of course we went crazy with our cameras!

Skating along Han River is a wonderful experience; it's somewhat like East Coast Park, but imagine skating along the river with smooth grounds and everybody sticking to their lanes and not forgetting the wonderful cool weather. I love the scenery along the river. Chasing our Korean friends along Han River is great fun. At 14 degrees Celsius, the weather was bearably cold, felt like air-con in the open air. Only problem is, the ears can hurt when you skate long enough.

10 April 2005, Sunday
It's been raining the whole of last night and this morning, the floor is now soaking wet and it's really cold. Thank God the rain stopped just as we reached the venue at 6.00am. I was utterly amazed by the huge number of people present - there must have been easily 10,000 people there. I'm really impressed with the way the Korean government supports this sport. Imagine closing the whole of Shenton Way and Nichol Highway for this race.

The race started off with the Mens 42km. I stood at the starting line watching in amazement at the fine athletes. The International Teams were in the front rows followed by the Koreans. Looking down the crowd, it seemed like there were at least 500 people. My gosh, when will I get to see this amount of people in a race in Singapore. Bang !! A loud display of fireworks kicked off the event. Wow !! Look at the way they run off, it's totally amazing.

Next was the Womens 42km - another group of very focused and strong skaters who jostled for placing in lightning speed. I'm really amazed by them. Daryl was in the next event - Mens 20km. In his race, I guessed there were at least 2,000 skaters, it was such a huge crowd with mostly Koreans. The marshals were having a tough time controlling the crowd behind the starting line as they were all pushing forward. Finally, the Men sped off at the sound of the horn.

At last it was our race, Womens 20km. Jenn & I managed to squeeze ourselves to the front of the line together with Kim Ames. We had to lock arms and just rolled with the marshals to the starting line. I could not see the end of the line - 700 skaters? This is the first time I'm in a race with so many people, it was so exciting. I felt chill to my bones when the wind blew hard against us.

Bang !! Off we went jostling for position with the first pack. The Koreans are strong skaters with some as young as 13 years old. Jenn & I managed to keep up with the first pack for a good 10km of the race. They were really strong and we skated in a pack of about 20. The pack just keeps picking up speed and they are always breaking away. Now this is what I call a good race. They don't care if you pace behind them throughout the course.

There were up slopes, down slopes, sharp turns, uneven roads and not forgetting very wet puddles. We passed many of the skaters in the Mens 20km event too and they went whistling mad! At one point, our Korean friend was chasing after us with his digital camera and cheering us on simultaneously! There are crazy!! I was afraid I couldn't complete the race as I was injured during the last charity skate in March, but thank GOD I managed to stay strong throughout. I finished the race at position number 18 and I'm really glad because I thought that I would have done worse due to the pain that was screaming at my ankle. I am satisfied with myself.

I had so much fun in Korea, I didn't feel like leaving. Hopefully I'll be able to come back to Korea for the next SWIC. Until then... Chaozz...