Oakville Beaver Article - Oakville Speed Skaters On Fast Forward
10/20/2009

OAKVILLE SPEED SKATERS ON FAST FORWARD

The Oakville Speed Skating Club season started with a fast and furious pace.  With already 5 competitions behind it, the Oakville Speedsters are racing to success.

This season a number of firsts have occurred for the Club.  The Club hosted its first Summer Camp with over 45 skaters attending.  The camp was run by Level III Coach Matt, with a 3 part component consisting of technique, racing and dry land.

The Oakville Speed Skating Club also introduced its new Introduction to Speed Skating Program, designed for children 5 to 14, held every Saturday at River Oaks Arena. 

Our skaters have already attended competitions all over the Province and the United States.  London, Belleville and Saratoga, New York were this season’s first competitions.  Oakville had 40 skaters attending these meets with Joshua Sullivan, Quinn MacHattie and Alex Giannotti finishing first in their respective categories.  Anaka Will-Dryden, Edouard Parent finished second and Joshua Whibbs  had a third place finish. 

We had two of our Elite skaters compete at the very prestigious Oktoberfest Short Track Competition held in Calgary.  Ben Heidecker and Samuel Chin-Cheong competed against many of Canada’s finest speed skaters.  Both Ben and Samuel achieved personal bests in distances skated.

In Ontario, one of our Associations elite competitions is an Age-Class Ontario Cup.  Competitors who are allowed to attend these competitions are based on a ranking system.  All skaters from across Ontario are ranked on their ability based on the total of two distances for their respective age class.  The Oakville Speed Skating Club had 35 skaters eligible to compete at this first Ontario Cup held in Gloucester, Ontario. 

The Oakville Club had the largest number of eligible skaters from across the Province, with 20% of the skaters and bringing home 25% of the medals.  Congratulations to Anaka Will-Dryden – 1st, Nicholas Kothleitner – 1st, Tiago Santos – 3rd, Ben Heidecker – 2nd, Blake Sullivan – 3rd, Sean McAnuff -2nd.  Relays races are also a component of Ontario Cup competitions with many of our Oakville skaters participating in the relays with terrific results.

Our Club celebrates when a member achieves a milestone at competitions.  We celebrated Julia Kennific’s achievement of skating her 500m time under 60 seconds, at the London Meet and Ben Heidecker’s achievement of skating his 500m time under 50 seconds at the Gloucester Meet.   We celebrate these achievements with delicious cake shared by all of their fellow Club members.