Speed skating world record joy for Coventry University Online chief

This was a Masters competition and it was 11 races over three days. It’s tough mentally as much as anything else because if you have a bad race you can’t dwell on it, you’ve just got to put it behind you and go again.

I wasn’t really concentrating on the time for the 1,500m but as I finished I looked up at the board and I thought ‘that must be a world record’. It was such a sense of elation I can’t describe it - I just couldn’t believe it.

I train early mornings three days a week and do sessions on the ice with Mohawks Ice Skating Club in Solihull a couple of times each week. I’m often training with much younger skaters but I think that helps to push me.

This is a lifelong passion for me as I’ve been skating since I was eight years old. I used to go to the general disco sessions at the ice rink in Nottingham but after a while I wanted to do something a bit more interesting. I saw some of the older teenagers doing speed skating there, telling me about all the trips they’d been on, going around the world. It inspired me to give it a go myself and I feel very lucky that I had the chance to do the same thing when I got older.

This can be a hard sport - you’ve got to be determined and show resilience and in that respect I think it’s helped drive me in my professional life as well.”

Steve Humber