Speed skaters tune up at outdoor oval

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This article was published 04/01/2019 (2704 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The familiar sounds of clacking skates and lap timing have returned to the Susan Auch Oval.

The 400 metre outdoor oval located behind the Cindy Klassen Recreation Complex is the only long-track speed skating rink in Winnipeg and skaters took to the ice for the first time this winter during an annual training camp hosted by the Manitoba Speed Skating Association on Dec. 27 and 28.

“It’s a great way for the kids to get back on the ice and get comfortable on long track again because they’ve been skating short track predominantly so far,” said MSSA executive director Elizabeth Williamson Derraugh. 

Thirty-five skaters took part in the camp, including many of the Team Manitoba athletes headed to the Canada Winter Games in Red Deer, Alta., in February. 

While there are a handful of experienced skaters in the group, the games will be the largest competition most of the athletes will have participated in.

“We’re sending quite a few younger skaters to this one who will also be eligible for the next games, so this is going to be more of a learning experience for them,” Williamson Derraugh said. “Hopefully for the next time they’ll be able to clean up.” 

Three St. James skaters are among the group of 18 athletes and two alternates.

Tyson Langelaar is part of the boys long track team and is expected to be an athlete to watch, having placed second in the 2018 world junior championships, while Hunter Ullett will be competing with the boys short track team, and Robyn Salie will be competing with the girls short track team. 

With ski goggles on and a neck warmer pulled up over her nose, Salie was trying out a pair of clap blades for the first time on Friday. 

“I’ve never tried skating on the long track blades so that was a highlight (of the camp) for me,” she said. “The boot detaches from the blade and in short track the blade is fully attached.”

The Grade 9 Sturgeon Heights student signed up for speed skating lessons after noticing a poster at a local rink and was hooked on the sport right away.

“I liked how it was individual, you do have a team but you’re mainly racing against yourself and your time,” she said. 

Salie is excited about competing at the Winter Games and says her goal isn’t “to get a medal or anything, (I’m) just trying to get a personal best and skate well with my team.”

Coaches Alex Moritz and Scott Van Horne led the MSSA training camp and will be managing the province’s short and long track teams, respectively, for the games. Van Horne has worked with Salie in the past and has watched her dedication to the sport grow in the recent years.

“She’s joined the provincial development team this year and has made it her main focus and that’s what’s required to make the Canada Games, it’s not an easy thing to make,” he said, adding that Salie proved herself at the Manitoba Open qualifying time trials in December. 

“It wasn’t a guarantee that she was going to make it, she had to skate her best and she did.”

Team Manitoba will be practicing four to five times a week leading up to the games, with the short track skaters practicing at hockey rinks around the city and the long track skaters braving the elements at the Susan Auch Oval. 

Currently, there are only two covered long track ovals in Canada and many elite skaters from Manitoba move to Calgary — where the Olympic Oval is located — to train year-round. 

“We’d love to have a facility here,” Williamson Derraugh said, conceding that an Olympic-sized 111-metre short track oval facility is a more realistic goal for Winnipeg. 

Despite the lack of facilities, Manitoba has consistently produced high-level speed skaters, including Olympians Susan Auch, Cindy Klassen, Mike Ireland and Clara Hughes. That is a legacy Williamson Derraugh says has contributed to a growing interest in the sport locally. 

“We’re definitely on an upward trend,” she said. “We have a small membership but we’re high profile — we’ve always got the results at the international level and Manitoba’s been a strong contender nationally as well.”