Club Coach - Andy Finster

Meet Andy…

I first skated at the age of around 8 or 9 when a family friend had a birthday party at Skaterz (which at the time was Roller City Eltham).  After the party, both my sister and I decided that we quite enjoyed skating and went on to take part in a lesson at the Rink.

I found the lesson quite hard, there was a bit of confusion with the lesson times and we were both left sitting there for over an hour waiting for our Mum to come and pick us up (it was also the first time she’d left us anywhere on our own…). It was a little while before I did my second lesson, but my sister and I also would go to the Friday afternoon session which finished just as the advanced speed class was starting.  Being that rollerblades weren’t a thing at the time, it was quite exciting to watch the skaters tearing around the floor with the shrill shriek of the wheels sliding into the corner. There were a couple of stand out skaters in the class, the current advanced coach Michael Byrne and a short muscular skater named Alex McEwan.

I started speed lessons around late 1990-early 1991 and competed in my first race in 1992, representing Eltham Roller Skating Club (which later became Speed Skaterz) at the Tour of Albury-Woodonga.  The race was washed out and half of the town was under water, so we raced indoor instead. I was quite lucky and managed to get 3rd overall for the event.  I raced at my first Victorian Championships the following year in 1993, racing on both quad skates (roller skates) and inlines.  As inline skates were quite new, I raced on a pair of rental recreational skates whilst waiting for some “speed blades” to arrive, which arrived the day before the road portion of the competition.

My first Australian Championships was in Perth the same year which was also our first time on an airplane.  Both my brother (Dan Finster) and I race - it was the first Nationals for both of us.  My best place was 5th in the 500m indoor, although sprints were not really my strong point - it should have been a sign of where my skating would end up.  The two of us raced every National Championships up until 2001, where due to some work commitments I was unable to race.

I won my first Australian Championships medal in a relay in 1996 and although coming close on the indoor in 1997 and 1998 championships, I did not win my first individual medal until 1999. 

As I began my working career, skating took a little bit of a back seat for a couple of years and my training was intermittent, only managing to get between 1 or 2 sessions in a week.  I managed to still carve out a bit of a niche performance in the indoor time trials, which considering I didn’t have a fantastic start, always left me wondering how I managed to pull if off. 

In 2006, two of the national senior skaters retired and I began training a little more again, thinking that I would have a good chance at snagging a medal at the National Championships.  Having had a fall in an early race after being close to the medals in the road Time Trial I was a little disappointed coming into the final day on the road.  However, in the 1000m, I managed to develop a small gap at the front whilst the fastest skaters were playing a tactical game behind me and after throwing it all on the line, I sprinted from about 700m out and managed to hold them off for the win, my first gold medal!

After representing Australia at the Junior Pacific Championships in 1998 (now Oceania) and Oceania Championships in 2004, the win in the 1000m, snagged me a place on the team for the World Championships, something I’d dreamed of since not long after I started speed skating.

My first World Championships was a blast, but the first race didn’t end well for me, crashing with around 30 or 40 metres from the finish line, Whilst I managed to get up and finish, a subsequent trip to the hospital for some stiches revealed I had also broken both of my arms.  Never one to let fear get in the way, once my arms were fully healed, I jumped straight back into training to prove that I could go even further.

I competed in another four World Championships with a best individual placing of 12th in the 500m a couple of time, twice missing a place in the semi final by less than half a wheel.

I finished training at the end of 2011 and raced my last National Championships in 2012.

The two biggest highlights of my skating career were racing in the relay final on the bank track in China at the 2009 World Championships with two people I grew up skating with, my brother, Dan and Mick Byrne.  We managed to finish 5th in the final.  The other is winning the 500m indoor Australian title seven years running.

Over my skating career I managed to win 36 national titles and set national records in five different events, from winning the 200m through to the 20,000m on the road along with the 300m through to the 5,000m indoor.

I began coaching the intermediate level class at Eltham in 2000-2001 which led to an interest in the management side of the sport. I went on to sit on the Club Committee intermittently until 2006 where Jon Evans approached me to get involved in organising competitions within the Club. Since then, I’ve held a position on the Speed Skaterz Committee for all but two years along with a position on state committees.

Skating has given me many fantastic memories and experiences over the years and I have looked to put all of that back into the sport so that everyone can have the opportunity to experience some of what I have.