Mickey Kupchyk of Regina sent the following report:
The last Saskatchewan Long Track meet of the year, the Sask Cup III, was held in Regina this weekend.
I'd personally like to thank the four Masters skaters from Manitoba that braved driving in near blizzard conditions from Winnipeg to Regina on Friday then travelled back in the same conditions Sunday. Without them, there wouldn't have been a separate Masters Division.
So what did we give them for all their troubles, perfect prairie winter weather. NOT!
Saturday morning started out at -20C with a 20 KM wind. Within 20 minutes of flooding the ice, the frost came out making the ice slightly faster then the carpet in my family room. Perfect conditions to set records. Sunday the temperature soared to -8C and the ice conditions improved but we had a 50 gusting to 60 KM headwind blowing straight into our faces on the home straight. The wind chill was estimated at -28C, absolutely balmy conditions.
Janice Kenworthy and Cheryl Conklin both from Winnipeg skated their hearts out all weekend in the Master Women's Division. They both dug down deep to complete the 3000m. Skating into that 50 KM headwind seven and a half times can only be classified as cruel and unusual punishment.
In the Masters Division, I got to skate with Randy Plett and Bernie Enns both from Winnipeg. Bernie is only in his second year of skating. He did an admirable job all weekend coming very close to his PB's. It's one of the only times I felt sorry for 6 foot 6 person, the wind was a killer for a man his size.
I can only stand in awe of Randy. The power this guy generates is unbelievable. In pretty much every race he left 10-15m behind within 50m of the start. He skated some awesome times given the conditions.
As for myself most of my times were well off my PB's except for the 1500m. In that one race I was able to stay close to Randy at the start (I think he was feeling sorry for me) which helped me to a new Saskatchewan record of 2:22.94.
Once again, thank you to the Manitoba skaters and I'm looking forward to seeing you in Winnipeg this weekend for the North American Long Track meet.
I'd personally like to thank the four Masters skaters from Manitoba that braved driving in near blizzard conditions from Winnipeg to Regina on Friday then travelled back in the same conditions Sunday. Without them, there wouldn't have been a separate Masters Division.
So what did we give them for all their troubles, perfect prairie winter weather. NOT!
Saturday morning started out at -20C with a 20 KM wind. Within 20 minutes of flooding the ice, the frost came out making the ice slightly faster then the carpet in my family room. Perfect conditions to set records. Sunday the temperature soared to -8C and the ice conditions improved but we had a 50 gusting to 60 KM headwind blowing straight into our faces on the home straight. The wind chill was estimated at -28C, absolutely balmy conditions.
Janice Kenworthy and Cheryl Conklin both from Winnipeg skated their hearts out all weekend in the Master Women's Division. They both dug down deep to complete the 3000m. Skating into that 50 KM headwind seven and a half times can only be classified as cruel and unusual punishment.
In the Masters Division, I got to skate with Randy Plett and Bernie Enns both from Winnipeg. Bernie is only in his second year of skating. He did an admirable job all weekend coming very close to his PB's. It's one of the only times I felt sorry for 6 foot 6 person, the wind was a killer for a man his size.
I can only stand in awe of Randy. The power this guy generates is unbelievable. In pretty much every race he left 10-15m behind within 50m of the start. He skated some awesome times given the conditions.
As for myself most of my times were well off my PB's except for the 1500m. In that one race I was able to stay close to Randy at the start (I think he was feeling sorry for me) which helped me to a new Saskatchewan record of 2:22.94.
Once again, thank you to the Manitoba skaters and I'm looking forward to seeing you in Winnipeg this weekend for the North American Long Track meet.
No comments:
Post a Comment