WORLD MASTERS DAY ONE

The 20^th International Masters All Round Speed Skating Competition is well under way, starting with a welcoming reception and draw meeting on Wednesday, February 23, 2011 at the Olympic Oval in Calgary.

At January 31^st, there were 288 registered competitors, somewhat lower than the 328 registered competitors at the 2007 Games held in Calgary. A number of competitors from the last Games indicated that they were not registering this time because of the requirement to qualify for the 3000M or 5000M races, as for even a top competitor, a slip or stumble in one of the early races could mean an early end to their competition after only three races. For the men, their competition weekend could be over as early as Friday at noon.

There were a number of scratches so the actual number of competitors may be lower than these registration figures; the final tally should be available after all of the competitors have raced on Friday.

Once again, the registration was dominated by male entries, with only 59 female competitors, and particularly disproportionate registrations from some countries such as Norway, which has only 4 female competitors out of the total of 61 competitors submitted in the country registration.

Thursday’s competition included men in the age groups from 30-34 to 55-59, for their first two distances. Unofficial winners:

500M

M30 Willem Jan Molleman NED 39.96

M35 Tjark Verhoeven NED 39.11

M40 Roberto Sighel ITA 38.39

M45 Brian Boudreau USA 38.79

M50 Morten Henriksen NOR 41.02

M55 Victor van den Hoff NED 40.76

3000M

M30 Willem Jan Molleman NED 4:10.39

M35 Thor Olav Tveter NOR 4:08.99

M40 Roberto Sighel ITA 3:58.56

M45 Jan Duif NED 4:02.65

M50 Herman Vermeer NED 4:07.35

M55 Victor van den Hoff NED 4:15.26

Complete results will be available here.

Competition continues Friday with the 1500M for men in these age groups, followed by the 500M and 1500M for men in the age groups from 60-64 to 80-84, and for women in the age groups from 30-34 to 80-84.