The Alau Ice Palace ( kk, Алау Мұзайдыны сарайы; Alau Mūzaidyny Saraiy) is an 8,000-seat

speed skating oval A speed skating rink (or speed skating oval) is an ice rink in which a speed skating competition is held. The rink A standard long track speed skating track is, according to the regulations of the International Skating Union (ISU), a double-laned t ...

Nur-Sultan Astana, previously known as Akmolinsk, Tselinograd, Akmola, and most recently Nur-Sultan, is the capital city of Kazakhstan. The city lies on the banks of the Ishim (river), Ishim River in the north-central part of Kazakhstan, within the Akmo ...

Kazakhstan Kazakhstan, officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a transcontinental country located mainly in Central Asia and partly in Eastern Europe. It borders Russia to the north and west, China to the east, Kyrgyzstan to the southeast, Uzbeki ...

. As well as speed skating it is also used for other sports. It was opened in 2011. The center hosted the

speed skating Speed skating is a competitive form of ice skating in which the competitors racing, race each other in travelling a certain distance on Ice skate, skates. Types of speed skating are long track speed skating, short track speed skating, and marath ...

events at the

2011 Asian Winter Games The 2011 Asian Winter Games ( kz, 2011 жылғы қысқы Азия ойындары, 2011 jılğı qısqı Azïya oyındarı) was a multi-sport event that was held in Nur-Sultan, Astana and Almaty, Kazakhstan, that began on January 30, 2011, an ...

. In 2015, it hosted the

World Sprint Speed Skating Championships The World Sprint Speed Skating Championships are annual speed skating championships. The championships are held over a two-day period, with the skaters racing one 500 m and one 1,000 m each day. Since the higher speeds towards the end ...

. It was ranked first among the world’s speed skating stadiums according to the Dutch AD Sportwereld publication’s ranking. For

judo is an unarmed gendai budō, modern Japanese martial art, Olympic sport (since 1964), and the most prominent form of jacket wrestling competed internationally.『日本大百科全書』電子版【柔道】(CD-ROM version of Encyclopedia Nipponi ...

it was the venue for the

2015 World Judo Championships The 2015 World Judo Championships were held in Astana, Kazakhstan, from 24–30 August 2015. The competition was held at the Alau Ice Palace. Schedule ''All times are local (UTC+6).'' Medal summary Medal table Men's events Women's events ...

in August 2015 and for

ice speedway Ice speedway is a developed form of motorcycle speedway racing, featuring racing on frozen surfaces. The sport uses bikes enhanced for the terrain. Participants can compete at international level. Outline The bikes race counterclockwise arou ...

it hosted final 1 of the 2018 Individual Ice Racing World Championship.

History

Construction of The Oval began in 2007, nearly four years after

Astana Astana, previously known as Akmolinsk, Tselinograd, Akmola, and most recently Nur-Sultan, is the capital city of Kazakhstan. The city lies on the banks of the Ishim (river), Ishim River in the north-central part of Kazakhstan, within the Akmo ...

and

Almaty Almaty (; kk, Алматы; ), formerly known as Alma-Ata ( kk, Алма-Ата), is the List of most populous cities in Kazakhstan, largest city in Kazakhstan, with a population of about 2 million. It was the capital of Kazakhstan from 1929 to ...

had been designated hosts of the

. Construction was completed by the end of the summer of 2011, officially opening in December 2011, two months before the beginning of the Games. The Alau Ice Palace was designed as the first covered speed skating oval in Kazakhstan, and as the second ever artificially frozen speed skating venue after

Medeu The Medeu ( kk, Медеу, ''Medeu''), is an outdoor speed skating and bandy rink. It is located in a mountain valley (Medeu tract, Medeu Valley, or the valley of Malaya Almatinka River) on the south-eastern outskirts of Almaty, Kazakhstan. M ...

. Being domed, this would give the facility the ability to control climate conditions inside to produce the highest quality ice possible. The Alau is an artificially frozen indoor skating rink with a standard speed skating track of 400 meters to the lap. The radii of the inner and outer competition lanes are 26 and 30 meters respectively. The width of each competition lane is 4 meters with an inside training lane of 4 meters. When not hosting speed skating competitions, The Oval is open to public skating and family day events. It has also hosted national youth championships in

rink bandy Rink bandy is a variant of the larger sport of bandy. Unlike bandy which is played on a large bandy field, rink bandy is played on significantly smaller ice hockey sized ice rinks. While a bandy field is about the same size as a football pitch, ...

Track records

References

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External links

Official websiteAlau Ice Palace on SpeedSkatingNews.infoSCADA visualization and control system of the Alau Ice Palace
Indoor arenas in Kazakhstan Indoor speed skating venues Speed skating in Kazakhstan Sports venues in Astana