Many thanks to Anika Bedard who sent the following report -
We have very good news for the master speed skating community in
Before I started skating, I was told the master speed skating was very popular and strong about 15 years ago and masters skaters were much more involved in the speed skating community of the city. For many reasons, in the last few years, membership as well as overall participation have been slowly declining to a point where we were wondering sadly if the end of masters speed skating in the city was coming. About 4-5 years ago, the Regional center was set up and their goal was to offer speed skating training for skaters of all ages. This new regional organisation was needed and offered to young skaters opportunities to develop to their best potential in this sport and eventually join provincial and national teams but it never really catered to and understood well the needs, drive and goals of masters and sadly regularly forgot to include us in their overall yearly training.
Last year, the Sainte-Foy club with François Calletta, organiser of the Pentathlon des neiges, had decided to themselves cater to their needs and offered classes for beginners and intermediate skaters supervised by the Olympian Isabelle Doucet. These classes were very popular. This year, with the merger of masters of the two major masters clubs, these classes will still continue to be offered and also a new training group is added for advanced recreational and competitive skaters under the supervision of Patrick Dufour, former coach in the Sainte-Foy club and
If you become a member in our club, beside the possibility of joining a training group, attend club activities and meeting nice and interesting people ;), you will be allowed to skate at the Gaétan-Boucher oval during speed skating club hours from 18:00 to 19:00 every day except Sunday and from 11:00 to 13:00 on weekends when there is no racing scheduled (see calendar). Everyone can join, even if you don't reside in the vicinity of Québec City .
The club has also decided to purchase long track skates for rental for those who would like to try speed skating.
With all these changes, we hope that it will give a push to master speed skating in the city. If you would like more information or interested in becoming a member, you can write to our president André Langlois at cpvmq@live.ca
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