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Almost 8000 participants at the traditional City Night by SCC RUNNING –
just one of many records on this July 31st evening.
771 inline skaters at night
771 enthusiastic skaters meant a new record number of participants, which
was honoured by the applause of a record number of spectators (55,000) along
the Berlin course.
The starting shot was heard at 7:30 p.m. sharp. From the beginning, the team
racers from VERO, Salomon, Zepto and FILA put on pressure to form a good
rolling leading group as fast as possible. The best start, however, was made by
one of the favourites, the young man from Eisenach, Martin Stiffel. With a team
relay bronze medal from the Jr. European Championships in Pamplona in his
pocket and after the track laps in Spain he also wanted to skate off his
frustration about not being selected for the Jr. World Championships in
Italy.
Markus Pape in the lead
At the 5k mark on Kantstraße, the spectators were able to see last
year’s champion and one of the top favourites, Markus Pape (ZEPTO), up in
front. He was supported by his teammates, the Oldtimer brothers from Berlin. By
that point, the other teams had already set their hopefuls at the front of the
20-strong leading group, as well.
At the end, the fastest skates once again belonged to the team leader of
ZEPTO Teams Marcus Pape (Zepto), only a few millimetres ahead of Patrick
Täubricht (POWERSLIDE) in second and Tilo Bock (Salomon) in third. The
best Berliner this evening, Enrico Würfel from the VERO skaters, just
missed third place.
Course record matched
The winning time was once again 15:34 minutes, impressively demonstrating
that the 10k City Night course is one of the fastest in Germany.
In the women’s race, one saw the Barcleycard - Express at the lead for
a long time, but someone else won in the end. Mirijam Lang won, making this
wonderful summer evening perfect with a double victory for the ZEPTO Team,
leaving second and third place to Barcleycard´s Stephanie Pipke and Tina
Landgraf.
The organisers Mark und Horst Milde once again showed their readiness to be
visionaries in the sport of speedy wheels during the 13th Bewag City Night,
making it possible for the 771 skaters to demonstrate their avowal to SKATE for
OLYMPIA with a banner at the start right before the race.
Mike Saft