Club Pati Barcelona continues its success
In 2014 the club did approximately the same as in the first year but in a more professional way. For the participation in the championships and the successes the members of the club realized I like to refer to the overview in their website. Here I would like to follow what happened on the informal level during the weekly meetings and special events. The same training events were organized. Below we see the first training in pictures.
The pictures show that the size of the groups at the trainings have been increased again. The skating at the Besos river looks also more orderly than in the past. This is probably true because the homogeneity of the groups of participants in championships has increased.
New developments
One of the worries at the end of the last year was the choice of a proper sport dress for the club members. After some discussion the decision was made and in the next races the members defended the colors of the club but clearly indicated as well where they stand with respect to ongoing discussions in Catalunya as you might be able to see in the photo at the side. |
Mateu introduced also another new aspect in the training. Before starting to skate he organized a warming up by running and some 10 minutes of physical exercises. This was not equally liked by all members as Elias makes that clear. But in general the exercises were much appreciated
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Other innovations had to do with the development in the time with respect to present the club in the media: selfies and photos made by a drone. Also different presentations of the members were introduced
The members trained hard for the championships
Don´t be mistaken the members who wanted to participate were training hard to realized good results in the championships. This happened along the Besos river and the airport as you see below.
Don´t be mistaken the members who wanted to participate were training hard to realized good results in the championships. This happened along the Besos river and the airport as you see below.
These trainings also led to a lot of very good results as can be seen in the website of the club.
The championship of Catalunya
It was a special challenge for the club members to get good results at the Championship of Catalunya that took place on the circuit where we weekly trained. It is clear that this gives the members of the club an advantage but it had to be realized as well. In total 8 prizes were won by the club with as the most pretigious one, the first prize of Eusebio on the 5.000m and the 10.000m in the category masters 50+.
It was a special challenge for the club members to get good results at the Championship of Catalunya that took place on the circuit where we weekly trained. It is clear that this gives the members of the club an advantage but it had to be realized as well. In total 8 prizes were won by the club with as the most pretigious one, the first prize of Eusebio on the 5.000m and the 10.000m in the category masters 50+.
That I also got again the first prize on the 5.000m in the category Masters 60+ was not more than logical because there was again no other skater in the category of 60+.
The club took immediately advantage of this situation to make fun of it.
My first place in this championships was celebrated as if if was a world championship or at least a championship of Spain.
The consequences
The effect of the results reported in the Facebook, the many funny pictures that were placed there and the advertisements Bitxu made was that the group of participants got larger and larger. The photo below shows how much interest was created in a relatively short time.
The effect of the results reported in the Facebook, the many funny pictures that were placed there and the advertisements Bitxu made was that the group of participants got larger and larger. The photo below shows how much interest was created in a relatively short time.
It should be clear that certainly not all these people came to the speed skating training to prepare for participating in speed skating competitions. There is a clear interest in possibilities to do some sport for a couple of hours during the night while improving the skating capacities. This is not so strange because in other cities this is also the case but it requires the necessary facilities as I have indicated before.