TRIBUTE TO MASTERS

In his March 13, 2007 open letter to the members, Graham Wilkins, President of the Ontario Speed Skating Association, included the following tribute to Ontario masters who recently competed in the 16th Masters International Speed Skating Games last month.

All of us 'more mature skaters' can also look to the skaters who participated in Calgary and recognize that athletic dedication and accomplishment is never limited by age.

The complete letter, which also recognized OSSA's athletes at the recent Canada Winter Games, can be seen here.

STATS

Thanks to Mickey Kupchyk, of Regina, who recently pointed out that many masters may find some of their race results published, amongst those of 9,828 other skaters, here.

Enter your name and see what happens!

Another interesting source which includes results from previous Masters International Speed Skating Games can be found on the DESG website here.

INTERNATIONAL MASTERS SHORT TRACK

Following discussions during the 16th Masters International Masters Speed Skating Games held last month in Calgary, an International Masters Short Track Committee has been formed. See further details here. The report says that one or more international masters short track competitions may possibly be offered for the 2007-08 season.

As noted, Ian Mellors has been proposed as the Canadian representative to this Committee.

Ian, who is the President of the Banff/Canmore Speed Skating Club, was also the meet coordinator for the 1st Annual Masters Ice Racing Challenge held December 29 - 30, 2006 in Canmore Alberta. Canadian masters, interested in short track racing, can contact Ian by e-mail.

CAMBRIDGE MASTERS SUMMER CAMP

This year's version of the annual Ontario Speed Skating Association summer camp is being held in Cambridge on olympic-size ice at Hespeler Arena. Camp organizers are considering a Masters component in conjunction with the camp and are trying to assess how many masters would be interested.

Organizers would also like to hear what topics or activities would be of interest to masters including the amount of ice time needed and preferences regarding any other related activities such as cycling, inline skating, running, etc.

The camp is scheduled for Monday August 20th through to Friday the 24th.

If you're interested, want more information or have suggestions as to the masters camp format and content -

- contact Bob Laurence by e-mail.

BEHIND THE SCENES

In the aftermath of the World Masters Championship in Calgary, much has been said and written about the accomplishments of the competitors - results, times and records. There are many others, however - both skaters and non-skaters, who are working behind the scenes for the advancement of masters speed skating in Canada and elsewhere. As we reflect back on the season which is winding down, I'd like to mention a few of these people.

ANIKA BEDARD - pictured at right with her Ste-Foy friend and training partner Genevieve Provencher. In addition to being an accomplished speed skater, Anika maintains La page des patineurs de vitesse maîtres which provides information to french-speaking masters speed skaters in Canada. She has spent endless hours translating most of the posts which appear in english on this page. Anika has also been instrumental in the creation of the newly-formed Canadian Masters Speed Skating Committee and initiated the creation of the alternate masters skinsuit which many competitors were wearing in Calgary.

Photo by Rene Therrien

BOB LAURENCE - In 2003, Bob initiated the creation of the first Canadian masters skinsuit which most competitors were wearing in Calgary and which was first seen in Inzell GER in 2004 in the 13th Masters International Speed Skating Games. Bob has also single-handedly facilitated the creation of Canadian masters baseball hats and toques which many masters can be seen wearing. Bob is pictured here in Calgary last month sporting the one-and-only original skinsuit prototype #1 - still wearing well 3 years after its creation.

Photo by Tim Reilly

LARRY MAGLOIRE - When he's not speed skating, Larry's a professional graphic designer. Many of the Canadians wearing the masters skinsuit in Calgary may not realize that Larry designed it, and the logo on it, back in 2004. Three years later in Calgary, Larry finally got to wear a prototype suit #3 for the first time in the 16th World Masters Games. Larry's dedication to speed skating extends to many many hours coaching young skaters in the Brampton Ontario club.

Photo by Tim Reilly

REG VAN DRECHT - Reg was the lone master from Atlantic Canada at the Calgary competition and previously represented Canada at the 13th International Games in Inzell GER. His Fredricton NB company, Valley Graphics, has done all the printing of the logos and lettering on the Canadian skinsuits.

TIM REILLY - As recently profiled on Zen and the Art of Speed Skating, Tim Reilly took over 1,700 photographs of the Calgary Games while, at the same time, providing encouragement to his skater-wife Kathie Zapatocki and others. Tim's photos were shown on the large video screens at Cowboys during the closing ceremonies of the Games.

Photo by Ann Hanham

MIKE RIVET - Mike has been working with a large group of masters speed skaters from the Ottawa area, preparing them since last summer for the Calgary Games. His coaching program through the late fall and early winter included trips to Lake Placid and Ste-Foy for marathon races and training sessions while waiting for the brief appearance of Ottawa's Brewer Park natural ice oval in late January - February. Pictured below (8th from left) with his team wearing their new masters skinsuits, Mike cheerfully extended his expertise and guidance to many additional skaters in Calgary including those from other provinces and countries. As a former Canadian national team member, Mike's advice was not to be taken lightly and assisted a great number of competitors, including myself, to exceed their personal goals. By my observations, Mike may have spent about 50 to 60 hours on the ice in his skates during the training sessions and races of the Calgary Games.

Photo by Tim Reilly

TAWNYA YARD - Tawnya is the program coordinator / head coach for the Calgary Speed Skating Association. Similar to Mike, she started working on initiatives to get local masters keen for the Calgary Games almost a year before the actual competition. Her hard work paid off as 14 CSSA masters became keen enough to order masters skinsuits for the competition. Tawnya was also seen putting in long hours on the ice throughout the preceding training sessions and the actual competition.

ALICIA WEISS - Alicia is a key promotor of masters speed skating in the Ottawa area where she reports the Pacers Club masters group has 40 current members and 60 past members/interested people. Alicia is also a keen photographer of masters speed skating - particularly marathon racing. Her pictures can be seen at A Leesh’s photos.

BRETT ARNASON - In 2005 while competing at the 14th Games in Baselga de Pine, Brett took it upon himself to attend the International Masters Speed Skating Committee meeting which was also being held. Since that time, Brett has represented Canada to the IMSSC and was also recently voted spokesperson for the newly-formed Canadian Masters Speed Skating Committee. In addition, Brett is active in local speed skating in the Winnipeg MAN area, where he helped to raise funds for the North American Speed Skating Championships recently held there.

MARY O'DONNELL - Mary served as the USA representative to the IMSSC for more years than I know and only recently stepped down. It was great to see Mary skating in Calgary in the penultimate competition of the masters organization she has helped to build.

Photo by Tim Reilly

ANDREW LOVE - Andrew is not so much behind the scenes as some others - as his avidly-followed blog Zen and the Art of Speed Skating is well known to most master skaters. Andrew's site is one of the best on-line chronicles of speed skating and is helping enormously to build masters speed skating both internationally and in North America. Perhaps less known is Andrew's recent agreement to take over from Mary as the USA representative to the IMSSC.

Photo by Tim Reilly

DR. STEPHEN GUNTHER & HARRY DINGLE - These two USA masters, who both competed in the recent Calgary Games, have been largely responsible for organizing the only annual international masters speed skating event in North America held each year at Milwaukee's Pettit Center. Through this event, Steve and Harry are building interest and organization in masters speed skating in the USA.

I'm sure there are many many other builders and promoters who are, or have been, working behind the the scenes. To those who I may have overlooked, or am unaware - I apologize and extend thanks from all masters speed skaters for the great work you're doing.

My sense is that masters speed skating is at an all-time high in Canada and the USA - a phenomena that I hope is more than the result of the International Games being held in Calgary's Olympic Oval. Perhaps there is a momentum created on which we can continue to build.

SYLVAN LAKE MARATHON

Trevor Nelson of Prince George BC sent the following report:

On Saturday March 3rd, about 100 skaters participated in the 5th annual 100 km Spitz Sylvan Lake Ice Marathon. There were other categories as well such as the Junior 25 km event and the touring event where skaters could complete up to 50 km if they chose. Altogether, hundreds of skater took part in this wonderful event on a perfect day for skating.

The day of the marathon it was just below freezing with the ice in the best condition in the years we have been participating. This year the loop was shortened to five km which made it possible for the ice-making crew to spend a bit more time filling the cracks that often proved quite deadly in years past.

This year Prince George, B.C. was well represented by four skaters (all masters) in the 100 km event. We also had our coach Matt deNys ready to provide track-side support in the form of energy foods, drinks, race information, and encouragement. We were all raring to go when the horn went a few minutes after 9:00 a.m.

The pace at the start of the race was set at a high tempo by three young Dutch skaters who had very recently been skating on the European marathon circuit. It was a race of attrition as one after the other skaters dropped off the back, unable to maintain the pace of lap after lap of sub 9:00 minute 5 km circuits. Finally only five skaters remained at the front of the pack -- two sets of Dutch brothers (the Van Benthams and the Van Blaaderens) and one lone Canadian master.

The Van Bentham brothers, Merein and Rolf, are the sons of Evert Van Bentham, former Eleven Cities race winner in '85 and '86. The family now lives in the Red Deer area and operates a dairy farm.

The fast pace of the race continued until there were only three skaters remaining in the lead group. At around 70 kilometeres the two young skaters finally got away from the lone Canadian master after he fatally tried to sprint away just prior to their more definite attack. First place went to Cor Van Blaaderen in a time of 2:58:43 with Merein Van Bentham 2nd in a time of 2:58:53 and third place went to Trevor Nelson (the author of this report) in a time of 3:00:05.

Other masters from Prince George: Lyle Dickieson, 9th place in 3:16:07, Brad Kreitz in 11th place, 3:22:30, and Kris Yip in 15th place in 3:30:37. Kris had a rough day with a bad burr on one blade right off the start which forced him to change skates. After that he broke springs on both skates and limped across the line on halfspring power.

For full results see here.

All in all a great event. I hope more masters skaters will consider attending this event next year as the organizers are in doubt as to the future of the Spitz Sylvan Lake Marathon.

Many thanks go out to all the volunteers and to the main organizers Evert and Jeannette Van Bentham and Dirk and Elizabeth Appel.

Any errors in fact or events are the fault of the author.

I have attached a few pictures: one of the Prince George team, and two that tell the story of the end of the skating season.

Thanks for keeping Masters skaters in touch Ross. I enjoyed reading all the information that came through your website.

CANADIAN MASTERS SPEED SKATING COMMITTEE FORMED

On Saturday February 24, 2007, twenty-four Canadian masters skaters from 6 provinces took time away from watching the ongoing World Cup time trials and Olympic Oval Stampede Breakfast to meet in one of the University of Calgary's Kinesiology lecture halls.

45 minutes later, the Canadian Masters Speed Skating Committee had been formed with Brett Aranason of Winnipeg elected as its interim spokesperson and a draft letter to Speed Skating Canada regarding masters competitions had been reviewed and accepted.

See the Meeting Minutes

See the letter sent to Speed Skating Canada by e-mail.

Even if you weren't able to voice your support for this organization or the letter, you can still do so by e-mail to Brett Arnason or to your provincial representative -

British Columbia - Gary Link

Alberta - Brian Sulzer

Saskatchewan - Mickey Kupchyk

Manitoba - Jean-Francois Godbout

Ontario - Sheila McGinn

Quebec - Anika Bedard

New Brunswick - Reg van Drecht

MORE REFLECTIONS ON THE CALGARY GAMES

Mickey Kupchyk of Regina sent his perspective on the 16th Masters International Speed Skating Games held in Calgary's Olympic Oval during February 22 - 25, 2007.

Do you remember the first time you did it? Well last week was the first time for a number of us. For some of the lucky ones they’ve done it multiple times, but I’m sure they’ll all admit that the first time was still the best. It’s easy to tell who the first timers are, just look for the people with that goofy contented smile on their face. So what is “it” exactly – skating in your first World Masters competition of course.

To capture the entire essence of the event in one word I’ll have to plagiarize that sage poet Eric Cartman from South Park, “Sweeeeet”!

It would take pages to list all of the accomplishments that were skated at The Olympic Oval last week (besides Ross did that already). Suffice it to say, records were dropping faster then a January thermometer in Winnipeg. Everyone I talked to over the week had at least one PB. So rather then talking about individual accomplishments I’d like to try and capture some of the general feel of the event.

Probably the thing I’ll remember the most is how all the skaters dumped the tank on absolutely every race. The exhaustion and determination on each skater’s face gasping for air as they dug down deep to find the last ounce of energy to finish the final lap. Watching smooth silent powerful strides transform into wobbly scrapping uneven steps as high tech speed skates turned into boots of cement.

Seeing “Brothers of the Wind” standing around the track yelling encouragement, willing their comrades on to the finish, feeling their pain as lactic tolerance thresholds went over the redline, and finally sharing in the joy of personal accomplishment.

Doing a 3 second personal best in the 1500m only to be humbled by a Dutch demigod as he sets a new world record and crushes your best time by 12 seconds. Drawing an American “flyer” for the 3000m right after he sets a new world record in the 500m.

Skating the killer 5000m and making the mistake of looking at the lap counter thinking you only had about 2 laps to go then seeing the number 5 still on the board. Swearing an oath to every deity you can think of if only you’d be granted enough strength to finish the race.
So what else happened all week?

First off we need to thank the Games organizers, everything ran like clockwork. It was a class act from start to finish. Nice bag of goodies and awesome T-shirts. The best part - we didn’t have to skate before noon each day – now that’s what I call knowing the demographics of your clientele. And what about the ice – unbelievably FAST! I actually saw them melt down a piece of ice, take it to the doping center and run tests on it to see if it was juiced. I’m not joking, if you don’t believe me just ask me. Heck even a dead man could have done a PB on that ice.

After the second day of racing Brain Sulzer invited a number of us over to his place for lasagna and beer. Great lasagna and even better salad. I think late in the evening we solved a number of world problems including global warming and hunger but I don’t think anyone took any notes. I guess we’ll have to go back to his place again some time and see if we can reconstruct the solutions. Can you say more beer at Brian’s?

Saturday morning they held a good old fashion pancake breakfast with sausages and frozen juice. Alright so it was a little cold outside in the tents but nobody was complaining. Too bad Bob Irvine was the only one who got the memo to dress like a cowboy.

Saturday night Rejean Lavoie invited us over for spaghetti and beer. Turns out Rejean and Jules went to high school in Gravelbourg Saskatchewan. Aha! Just like I thought, everyone has roots back to Saskatchewan even if they don’t want to admit it. Just a little aside, did you know that the first airport in Canada was opened in 1920 in Regina of all places? Bad news is that they still use the same straw bales to sit on in the waiting lounge.

The wind-up party was at Cowboys, a bar where they play both kinds of music: country and western. It’s the first time I’ve been in a place like that in a long time. The last time I was in a nightclub, a beautiful 20 year old women walked up to me and looked me right in the eyes, wet her lips and said, “excuse me sir, my mom would like to dance with you”. I’ve been in therapy ever since.

As the awards were being handed out that night I turned to my buddy Lyle Dickieson from B.C. and said, “One day it’ll be us up there getting the awards”. A lady overheard us and said, “Those are some pretty awesome skaters”. I had to agree with her but pointed out, “They’re only human like us and you just have to want it more”.

It’s hard to believe that I’ve only been speed skating for 2 years yet I’ve met enough great people to fill a lifetime and still I met more at these Games. It’s ironic that the Academy Awards are on TV as I write this. The band leader would definitely have to play me off the stage if I tried to list all of the wonderful people that I’ve met over the past 2 years. Oh hell I’ll try, there’s Anika, Ann, Bernie, Bob, Bob, Bob, Brett, Brian, Brian, Bruce, Cheryl, Cliff, Dave, Eugene, Lynn, Jean-Francois, Jo-Ann, John, Jules, Karla, Larry, Leela, Lyle, Marco, Mitch, per Grunnar, Randy, Reg, Rejean, Richard, Ron, Ross, Tim, and I’d like to specially thank my coaches Dave, Doug, Brad, Mark, and Bill back in Regina for teaching me how to skate, and Corr Zwaal from The Netherlands for teaching me how to race, and……..hold it, hold it, hold it – my wife Sharon and our two kids….damn it stop the music.

As I sit here in the airport waiting for my plane reminiscing about the week I’m happy to be going home but at the same time I’m sad knowing that it is all over. Looking back I realize that like so many others I spent the better part of a year preparing for my “first time”. I remember some of those summer days when I felt too tired to work out but then I’d say, “What do you think Victor van den Hoff is doing right now?” So I’d slap on the in-lines and do a few km.

Was it all worth it? I think the goofy contented smile on my face says it all. Pity there’ll never be another “first time”. Wait a minute, I could always try another new sport……..

REFLECTIONS ON THE CALGARY GAMES

Anika Bédard sent her following impressions of the 16th Masters International Speed Skating Games - the original of which is posted in French on her own website along with photos.

As I was sitting on the plane to go home to Québec City, I had many hours to reflect on the Calgary Games. Some very good memories, personal accomplishments and also some disappointments. I concluded that, most importantly, I had FUN and that the Calgary oval held its reputation as the fastest ice on earth!!!

328 skaters, 13 different counties with incredibly 100 skaters from Canada, 4 very long days of competitions during which so many international and national records and personal bests were broken. Ross did a good job at sorting out previous and new records (see his previous report). I have participated in a few games and these games were the biggest in many ways and the most competitive.

I am sure that you all went home with your own memories, easy to share with fellow skaters but sometimes difficult to share with someone who does not get it why we work out so hard at this sport! So I am sharing them with you. Here are some things I heard, saw or were reported to me:

- feeling joy and pride after a incredible 500m, feeling young again

- "sh… I forgot to change corridor (lanes)"…

- winking and waving to the crowd from a young 75 year old skater during the 1500m

- "the most important thing is, whatever happens, DON’T PANIC!"

- swallow down vomit during the 1500m … and still finish with a good time…

- see old friends and meet new ones…

- trying to learn the difficult western line dance - a difficult task for some agile skaters

- suitcases that never arrived and had to buy new skates…

- realize that you can skate for ever - or almost- when you see Joe MacDOnald at 85 still competing, cheered by the crowd: "Here cooomes JOOOE Mac DOOOOONALD!!!"…

- crashing just in front of the finish line and jumping on her bum trying to get her skate over the line…

- stolen skates

- seeing an Autobahn of skaters- at rush hour - on the oval…

- "let’s try one last start" and cutting himself on the ankle…

- having a cold on the most important competition of the year…

- learn that some skaters will never compete again…

- being with the cutest pink skaters in the world… (I have to say here that this comment does not come from me! I would like to add that the guys in the bright orange suits don’t look too bad also!)

- long talks with former Olympians

See you next year!

- Anika