Saturday, August 30, 2008

SPEED SKATING CANADA RULE CHANGES

According to the delegate package for last June's Annual General Meeting in Quebec City, there were several proposed rule changes affecting masters skaters. Although minutes of the meeting don't appear to be available so far, indirect information and a review of Speed Skating Canada's Red Book suggest the following outcomes -

Rule K3-100: changed masters age classes to 5 year groups, although the effective date is still June 30 prior to the competition. While this provides some increased consistency with international standards, the IMSSC rule is still the age reached during the competition year which means age classes will be one year out of synch when skaters move from age class to the next.

Rule K3-101: changed Canadian Masters Olympic Style Championship to be on its own, not combined with Canada Cup #3 or any other championship.
(Proposed by the Federation de Patinage de Vitesse du Quebec to be consistent with what's taking place. The Canadian Masters Championship has not been combined with Canada Cup #3 for the past 2 years.)

Rule K6-101
: changed to include masters in the Canadian Age Class Long Track Championships skating 500m, 1000m, 1500m and 3000m. (Proposed by the Manitoba Speed Skating Association for a variety of reasons including consistency with "sport for life" initiatives.) This appears to have passed, but the Red Book also makes mention of Masters Olympic Style events under the same rule heading.

Rule K22-100
: proposed that the 4th distance for masters skating
in long track mass start competitions be one of 500m, 1000m, 1500m or 3000m. (Proposed by the Manitoba Speed Skating Association for a variety of reasons including the opportunity to challenge the existing masters record for 3000m.) The updated Red Book indicates the 4th distance to still be one of 500m, 1000m or 1500m but has added an optional open 3000m event for masters which may be run at the completion of the competition.

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