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03/09/18

All Eyes on Ewen Fernandez

To those in the speed skating community Ewen does not need an introduction. But for those of you who are not up to speed, he is an amazing athlete that won almost every competition he attended in 2017. In addition to his personal race results, he is also a real team player. Once we caught up to him we were able to have a chat with this Rollerblade® speed team athlete.


Q: Ewen, in 2018 you became part of the Rollerblade® speed team. We are halfway through the year now, how has your experience been so far?

A: Rollerblade® was mythical. My favorite team of my childhood, with the strongest skaters like Arnaud Gicquel, Jorge Botero... So when I got the opportunity to join the team I was really happy and I have no regrets of switching teams.
It's a new adventure and a new challenge that gives me extra motivation!

Q. Based on a previous interview, you came from a dominating, yet uninteresting, team in 2017. Are things more exciting now? Why is that you think?
A: In my opinion, it's not good for the sport when a team dominates too much.  It's less exciting and attractive for the public. This is one reason that I decided to join the Rollerblade® speed team!  If you look at this season, there is a lot of competition during the races. It's necessary to wait until the World Inline Cup finale to know who is going to win the overall ranking. I am leading with only 9 points in front of the skater in 2nd place.

Q: Switching teams also means switching products.  How has this gone for you?
A: It's never easy to switch hardware because you need time to get use to your new stuff, but it's a part of the game, and it's really interesting to be part of the development of the new products for the brand.

Our equipment is already one of the best and I am really happy of that, but we still want to improve to be even better in the future.

Q: Your latest victory was in the Heerde (The Netherlands) at the Inline Speed Skating World Championship.  Can you tell us how that race went?

A: The last time that the French team won the track relay was in Argentina 4 years ago and I was in the team. So it was really important for us to win it again, the relay was one of the goals of the trainer. So before, it was really stressful because the goal was victory or nothing. Fnally all went well and we got the gold.

Q: At the moment you are ranked #1. This means the upcoming Berlin Marathon will be the race of the year. How are you approaching this race and what do you expect to happen there?
A: Berlin Marathon will be the most important race of the Rollerblade® speed team because the winner of the World Inline Cup will be decided on this race. So right know I am focused on my training to get the best shape this race, to keep my first place and why not winning Berlin for the 3rd time after 2011 and 2012.
But first we have some marathons to win before the D-Day, like Gdansk (25 august) and Pamplona Puenta la Reina (9 september).


Thanks for having a chat us Ewen.  We wish you all the best for the remaining season.

If you want to see Ewen in action be sure to visit the Berlin Marathon on September 15th. For now enjoy the video: “ All Eyes on Ewen Fernandez”

 

VIDEO