1ST. WESTERN REGION ABILITY MEET: LONDON OCTOBER 13 2007 Five skaters competed in the first race meet of the 2007-2008 season. Cameron Mitchell, a Midget, was placed in the Echo division against a field of 14, mostly Juveniles and Juniors. He came into the race meet recovering from a groin muscle injury ten days earlier which took him out of training for a week, but he was equal to the challenge and finished a very respectable 6th. overall. He had the misfortune to fall near the end of his first race, a 666m heat, so was relegated to the C final which he won handily: otherwise, he would most likely have finished higher at the end of the day. He then won his 500m heat with almost a PB, and finished 3rd. in the A final with a similar time. His last race was the B final of 1000m, a longer distance than for his age class. He showed great guts in the last two laps, in which he came up from a considerable distance behind the leader to snatch the win by a blade length in the final couple of strides. It was a good opening race meet for him. This was the first race meet for Zubin and Zenia Sethna, and they both handled themselves well. Zubin, a Juvenile, finished 9th. overall in the Juliet division out of 15 Bantams to Juniors (mostly Midgets & Juveniles). His 500m times were very close to the seed time recorded the previous week in practice, and of course his 333m and 666m races were all first occasions: his times were consistent with his 500m performance. Zenia also handled herself well. She finished 8th. overall in the November division out of 12 (mostly Midgets & Bantams, though the winner was a PeeWee). She surprised her parents by declaring that she had a great time and wanted to race again! Gary Witney, a Masters 4, competed in the faster of two masters division (Charlie) against an assortment of adults but mostly Seniors and Masters 1. While no longer quite the equal of those skaters, he raced at top form and placed 10th. overall with most times just a little slower than his recent bests, and set a PB in the 1000m. Roger Buxton, also a Masters 4, competed in the other masters division (Delta) against a field of mostly Masters 2, and finished 4th. overall in some good races but with times somewhat slower than he expected. NATIONAL LONG TRACK TEAM TRIALS: CALGARY OCTOBER 25-28 2007 Two members of the Markham Speed Skating Club were invited to compete at the Olympic Oval in the Canadian long track Team Trials. Andrew Godbout and Jordan Belchos both raced the 1,500 metre, 5,000 m, and 10,000 m distances looking to finish high enough in the rankings to earn spots on the Canadian team for this fall's World Cup events. Both had the best chance at the longest distance as a result of their past years of in-line skating. Jordan Belchos sets unofficial Canadian Junior Men's 10,000 m record Belchos, who is already on the National Development Team, finished 7th. in the 10,000 m race in 13 min 50.64 s, which was a remarkable 27 s faster than his previous personal best time and also the fastest-ever time for a Canadian junior age-class skater. However, it wasn't quite good enough to get on the team, as he was edged out by an eleven year veteran of the national team by just half a second, and doesn't qualify as an official record as that distance isn't included in the Junior Men's distances. Nevertheless, it was a remarkably good performance, and shows that he still has a lot of room for improvement. Godbout also skated to a similarly-impressive 25 s improvement in his personal best time for 10,000 m, and finished a few seconds behind Belchos in the next place. He too has clearly not yet reached his maximum potential. Both Belchos and Godbout placed well out of the running in the 5,000 m and 1,500 m distances, but were not disappointed by their results. They continue to train at the Olympic Oval, and are aiming to be on the Olympic team for the Winter Games in Vancouver in 2010. 1st. ONTARIO CUP AGE CLASS RACE MEET CAMBRIDGE NOVEMBER 3-4 2007 Mitchell claims bronze Cameron Mitchell (in red-and-black skinsuit the centre of the photograph) took third place overall (bronze medal) in the closely-fought Midget Boys division. He won each of his heats in the first three distances to reach the primary finals, where he faced the same group of closely-matched skaters on each occasion. He was unlucky enough to draw the outside lane at the start of each final in all four distances, which put him at a disadvantage at the first corner, and try as he could on each occasion, he was unable to pass the two leading skaters, so he finished a very close third in each final. So close were the first three skaters that he was always less than half a second behind the winner, and as little as 0.04 seconds in the tightest race, which made for very thrilling excitement for the spectators. He plans to refine his racing strategies before facing the skaters again.       Photo by Doug Dunn 2nd. WESTERN ONTARIO ABILITY MEET: TORONTO, NOVEMBER 17 2007 Gold and silver performances Chantal Singer (age 12) brought home a gold medal and Jonathan Nishio (age 12) a bronze medal. These results were particularly satisfying as neither skater has acquired much racing experience to date so they had to learn quickly to reach the podium. Singer won her 333 metre heat in the Echo division to qualify for the primary final, but her time was not the fastest of all the heats. Competition was intense in the final so traffic was tight, but she performed well and crossed the finish line first in a time 0.27 seconds faster than her heat and a convincing 0.11 s ahead of the next skater. She finished her 500m heat in second place, but her time was fast enough to qualify her for the primary final and was also some seven seconds faster than her previous best. Although she improved her time a little in the final, it still only put her in third place, but her first and third primary final positions put her ahead in points of all the other thirteen skaters in her division to capture the gold medal for the day. Competing in the Delta division, Nishio began with a 333m heat in which he finished a disappointing fourth, which qualified him for only the tertiary final. He redeemed himself by winning that race in one of the top five times, but the points earned would not normally put him in contention for a medal. Not fazed by that prospect, he proceeded to win his 500m heat to qualify for the primary final, and finished that race in second place with a time one second faster than his heat, and five seconds faster than a year ago. As the other top skaters in Nishio's division had similarly varied results, he earned enough points to win the bronze medal for the day. Two other young skaters from the Club also competed. Heidi Beck, age 13, performed consistently with times for her 500m and 666m races a little off her personal best times to finish 11th. in the Juliet division. Claire DesRosiers, age 9, did well by improving her personal best times considerably in her 222m and 333m races. Ron Wolfe, Gary Witney, and Roger Buxton competed in the Masters divisions, with the latter two being the oldest skaters in the race meet. Wolfe, a Masters 2, edged out Witney, a Masters 4, by one spot to finish 10th. in the Bravo division: both had typical times. Buxton, a Masters 4, had the misfortune of skaters falling right in front of him in two races which caused him to go off track in one case and cost him finish places in the other, so he finished well down the list in the Alpha division. CANADA CUP #1 LONG TRACK MEET : CALGARY, JANUARY 4 - 6 2008 Silver and bronze results in a national event Andrew Godbout favours longer distances, so he placed 41st. in the 500m, 15th. in the 1500m, and 3rd. for the bronze medal in the 5000m, his highest finish yet. Jordan Belchos placed 12th. in the 1500m, 2nd. (silver) in the Junior Men's 3000m (just half a second off first place), and 5th. in the 5000m. Unfortunately, he didn't quite qualify for the Canadian Junior Team. 3rd. WESTERN ONTARIO ABILITY MEET: WATERLOO, JANUARY 5 - 6 2008 Claire DesRosiers wins bronze Claire DesRosiers placed 3rd. (bronze) in her division and reduced her 500m time by a remarkable 15 seconds since the end of last season. In addition, she considerably reduced her 333m time to demonstrate her rapidly improving ability. Heidi Beck also had a good weekend, finishing 4th. in her division with PBs in most distances. Cameron Mitchell bravely finished his first race despite being in considerable distress, but had to retire from the rest of the competition due to sickness. 4th. WESTERN ONTARIO ABILITY MEET: OAKVILLE, JANUARY 13 2008 Heidi Beck wins silver Heidi found more speed and confidence in the one week between competitions, setting PBs in all three distances by considerable amounts - again. She knocked off 2 seconds in the 333m, 2s in the 500m to break the milestone 60s mark convincingly, and 3.5s in the 666m. As a result, she won the silver medal in her division and qualified for the Ontario Cup competition stream. Claire DesRosiers didn't rest on her laurels of the previous weekend either, but performed even better in this event. She moved up a couple of divisions and knocked off a further two and a half seconds from her 333m time and was blazing away in the lead in her other distances until gremlins grabbed her skates and caused her to fall - three times. Even so, she finished a very respectable 7th. in her division. 5th. WESTERN ONTARIO ABILITY MEET: BRAMPTON, JANUARY 26 & 27 2008 Jonathan Nishio wins gold and Claire DesRosiers wins bronze Jonathan Nishio had his day in the sun, and won every race to come home with the gold medal. Furthermore, he set PBs by sufficient amounts that he too achieved qualifying times for the Ontario Cup series. He had the dubious distinction of a time of 60.01 seconds for his 500m heat: now, just how much closer to breaking one minute can you come?!. However, he did even better in the final, finishing in 59.65 s to become the second member of the 500m Sub-60 Club this season. Claire DesRosiers set PBs in just about every race. Although not usually the leading skater into the first corner after the start, she held a good line in the corners with tight exits which allowed her to pass on the inside and thereby work herself up the pack. Not only did she win the bronze medal, but she also set qualifying times for the Ontario Championships, having qualified for the Ontario Cup series previously at Waterloo at the beginning of the month. A very good performance for only her second year in speed skating. Heidi Beck came into the competition after an excellent performance two weeks earlier in Oakville where she set qualifying times for the Ontario Cup series, and did even better still, finishing 5th. overall in her division. She set PBs in two distances, including lopping another 1.5 s off her 500 m time to reach 57.20 s, making the combined drop over 4.5 s, or over 7.4%, in just two weeks: most people would be happy with that improvement during a season! Chantal Singer found herself up against stiffer opposition than she had faced in the Toronto race meet in November (where she won the gold medal) and skated hard all the same and achieved respectable times, but this was not to be her glory event. Chalk it up to valuable experience. Breanna Chapman (leading from the start at the right) competed in her first race meet and skated admirably well. She placed 4th. overall in her division, and would have been even higher if gremlins in the ice hadn't grabbed her skates on a couple of occasions. Nevertheless, she clearly enjoyed the experience. Roger Buxton, a Masters 4, placed 4th. overall in an adult division. Photographs by www.a-shotonsite.com RACE RESULTS FROM EARLIER SEASONS: 2006-2007 2005-2006 2004-2005