Blade runners of all ages hit high speeds at Dunedin Ice Arena on Saturday.
Mainland Ice Racing Club member Ken Howie (58), of Queenstown, was the oldest skater competing at the 2015 New Zealand Short Track Ice Speed Skating ChampionshipsRacing anti clockwise around a 111m ice track was exhilarating, he said.
''I can cruise at 30kmh on the ice and you're pulling g[ force] going around the corners.''
To fall at speed and slide to the wall could be nasty but the body padding worn helped cushion the blow.
The elite skaters hit speeds up to 50kmh, he said.
At the championships, he raced in the masters section. He was defending his title but a nagging injury, a quad muscle tear, made it hard to accelerate and he placed second.
In February, he competed at the World Masters Games in Quebec, Canada, and returned with three medals - a gold and two silvers.
He planned to start a speed skating club in Queenstown as children were keen on the sport but the parents needed to be involved.
A child kept interested when a parent shared the interest, he said.
Dunedin Ice Skating Club member Lukas Ghidella (7), of Dunedin, said he was among the youngest racers at the championship.
The year 3 Grants Braes School pupil said had been speed skating for six months and could do 20 laps without stopping.
''I enjoy skating fast.''
Ice Speed Skating New Zealand chief executive Pamela Gray, of Christchurch, said about 40 speed skaters competed and were mostly from clubs in Dunedin, Christchurch and Auckland.
She hoped a Queenstown club would compete next year.
The championship venue changed annually but Dunedin Ice Arena was among the best for racing, Mrs Gray said.
''The ice is always good.''
Dunedin's ice master Reece Aitken was ''probably the best in New Zealand''.
In total, 13 New Zealand records were broken at the championships - seven of them by brother and sister team Zachary and Mikayla Biggs, of Auckland.
''That's pretty special,'' Mrs Gray said.
In the 5000m open relay, the open record was beaten by more than a second and the New Zealand record by nearly 15 seconds.
The event was won by the Hauraki club team from Auckland, comprising Zachary Biggs, Jason Clague, Mikayla Biggs and Lily Taitimu.
They narrowly beat the Canterbury Alpine club team of Ben Whiteside, Christopher Jarden, Ethan De Rose and Mark McCormack by .868 of a second.
