THE 2007-2008 SKATING SEASON IS OVER We had a good season again, with everyone having lots of fun and improving significantly. Many thanks to our coaches for their effort and dedication to make this happen, and to all the parents who gave their time and interest to allow their children to have the wonderful opportunity that speed skating provides. Nearly half of our regular skaters participated in at least one provincial short track race meet, several for the first time, which is a good turnout. Furthermore, some of them qualified for the Ontario Cup series during the year, of whom most also qualified for the Ontario Age Class Championships. Several skaters also competed in the Ontario Regional Championships. One skater also qualified for the national Age Class Championships. See the race results page for how our skaters performed. The following qualified for the Ontario Cup race meet series: Cameron Mitchell (Midget) Jonathan Nishio (Midget) Heidi Beck (Juvenile) Claire DesRosiers (Bantam) The following also qualified for the Ontario Age Class Championships: Cameron Mitchell Jonathan Nishio Claire DesRosiers Cameron Mitchell also qualified for the Canadian Age Class Championships (see PROVINCIAL TEAM in the next column). Racers won the following medals over the season: COLOUR SKATER EVENT GOLD Chantal Singer Toronto Jonathan Nishio Brampton SILVER Heidi Beck Oakville Roger Buxton Masters Championships BRONZE Cameron Mitchell Ontario Cup #1 Jonathan Nishio Toronto Claire DesRosiers Waterloo Claire DesRosiers Brampton Alexy Bérard Barrie Jocelyn Bérard Barrie Ali Rahnema Masters Championships The following became members of 500 metre Sub-Clubs this season:       Under 60 seconds: Heidi Beck Jonathan Nishio. Heidi Beck has also been selected to be in the opening class of the York Region District School Board's Bill Crothers Secondary School (see below). Well done all! SUMMER DRYLAND Our summer weekly outdoor dryland training will resume in May. To see what some of our summer dryland training looked like, go to our dryland page and look at the video which Rogers TV broadcasted as a news item on July 12 2007. The most suitable summer sports are cycling and in-line skating REGISTRATION * * * P R E L I M I N A R Y * * * Registration for the 2008-2009 season will take place on Saturday September 6 from noon onwards at the Mount Joy arena in which to complete members' paperwork and select skates. Please stay after you register to help the new people during the Open House (see below). You can skate yourself too, but only if you help. If you cannot attend this session, please make other arrangements to do these tasks before our first skating night: it will be too busy to do this work when we are trying to get everyone on the ice on the first skating night. OPEN HOUSE * * * P R E L I M I N A R Y * * * We will also hold our annual OPEN HOUSE in the early afternoon on Saturday September 6 2008 for newcomers who are thinking about joining our Club. We have ice from 2 p.m. to 3:30 to let them try speed skating for free, so invite your friends to take advantage of this opportunity and direct them to our Newcomers web page for more information. 2008-2009 ICE TIME * * * P R E L I M I N A R Y * * * The Club has the same three hours of ice time per week in the 2008-2009 season at the Mount Joy arena as in recent years, namely: two hours on Friday evenings from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. starting on September 12 2008 and ending on March 16 2009 excluding TBD. The younger and novice skaters have the first hour, while the faster and experienced skaters have the second hour. one hour on Thursday evenings from 8 p.m. till 9 starting September 22 and ending on March 22 2009 excluding TBD. This time will be for experienced skaters and is primarily a second hour per week for racers. We invite skaters from other clubs to participate with us during this time. COACHES Ron Blackwell will organize the coaching program and schedule. He will be assisted by Gary Witney, Ron Wolfe, Jocelyn Bérard, Peter Treacy and Sanda Ianculescu. We expect that former Canadian Olympic skater Valerie Ing will coach Thursday sessions this season too. We are using a Race Ready! training program created by Dave Morrison for our faster skaters to give them a competitive edge, but ensure you train off the ice too (see above). SKINSUITS Any skater who would like a Markham skinsuit should contact Roger (905 477-0335). The more who order at one time, the lower the price. FUTURE FACILITY? The Town of Markham Council voted unaminously at the end of June 2007 to endorse the plan to build the Canadian Sport Institute Ontario (CSIO) facility and authorized nearly $70 million towards the cost of its construction subject to other sources contributing the additional $130 million needed. The organizers are negotiating with the provincial and federal governments and private sources to obtain this financial commitment by the end of 2008. If successful, an opening date in 2013 is anticipated, and the facility would be a venue for Ontario's bid for the 2015 Pan American Games. The CSIO will be located at 407 and Kennedy Road, adjacent to the new YMCA and GO station. It will be a major multi-sport complex providing top-quality facilities and services fostering a 'culture of excellence' to enable athletes to reach international performance level as well as serving the needs of the community: a 'playground-to-podium' concept. Its proximtiy to several million people in the Toronto area makes it very attractive as a source of athletes, spectators, and sponsors, and the variety of public transit services and roads makes it conveniently accessible. It will have three main segments: ice, aquatics, and field/court. We, of course, are interested in the ice segment, consisting of four ice pads: one Olympic-size for training, two NHL-size, and one Olympic/NHL size with several thousand spectator seats as a major competition venue. We are trying to persuade OSSA to locate the provincial short track team here and to provide an environment which will encourage young adults to continue high performance speed skating after their high school years. The CSIO will also be very close to the York Region District School Board's Bill Crothers Secondary School on Main Street Unionville, south of Hiway 7 which will open in August 2008. The school will "link excellence in education and athletics with a commitment to healthy, active living." The CSIO facility will clearly provide a wonderful opportunity for our Club to grow and get better and become the club in Ontario! Let's start the work towards that goal now!

NATIONAL TEAM Jordan Belchos was selected to join the Canadian Long Track Development Team in mid-2007 following his move to Calgary in February 2006 to train on the Olympic Oval under the 'Own The Podium - 2010' progam. He has set two national records in the past year. For his 2007-2008 results, see our race results page. Andrew Godbout, who was was our head coach in the 2005-2006 season, also moved to Calgary in 2006 to train in long track under the 'Own The Podium - 2010' progam and has since competed in several Canada Cup race meets. For his 2007-2008 results, see our race results page. At the beginning of 2007, he participated in an event with the Bare Naked Ladies band to promote Bell Canada sponsorship and gave an interview on CTV. PROVINCIAL TEAM Cameron Mitchell, age 12, represented Ontario in the Midget Boys division of the 2008 Canadian Age Class Short Track Speed Skating Championships held in Sherbrooke, Quebec, from April 4 to 6. He is the first, and still the only, skater from the Club to qualify for and race at the national level in short track, and this was his second trip to the nationals in a row. Like last year, he gave an interview to Rogers TV before going (see below). In spite of nursing a muscle injury which had nagged him for most of the season, he proved himself by setting personal best times in three of the four distances and winning the bronze medal in the relay. However, due to his injury, he withdrew from the last (and longest) distance: even so, he finished sixth overall, which was a very commendable result. Click twice on the 'play' arrow below to start the video clip. ROMANIAN TEAM Alex Ianculescu traded her short track skates for long track ones a year ago, and has trained and competed for Romania in long track speed skating in Europe since February 2007. She donned wheels in the 2007 summer and won the Romanian in-line skating national women's championship by taking the gold medals in the 500m and 1000m distances, and silver in the 1500m. She returned to the ice again in the fall of 2007, and has become progressively faster in competitions. She won the Romanian Junior Women's Championship in November 2007 by taking the gold medals in 500m, 1000m, and 1500m, and gold overall: four in total! She broke the 44s mark for 500 m in early January 2008, which was 2.7 s faster than three months earlier. All her times are faster than the Ontario Junior Women's records, but the comparison isn't quite fair as her times were set on indoor ice and the Ontario times are outdoor. She travelled to China in February 2008 to compete in the World Junior Championships but was unable to race as her luggage containing her skates, like that of all her team-mates, failed to arrive in time: what a terrible disappointment! See her results and her own website and her YouTube site. SERBIAN TEAM Kristina Pap (#98 in the photograph) is the best of a small number of female skaters from Serbia and Montenegro and is that country's 2008 Women's Champion. She first appeared in international competitions in 2003, and first joined us in the summer of 2006 for dryland training and recreational summer skating. She continued with our competitive program in the fall of 2006, returning to compete in the European Championships and the World Championships in the spring of 2007. Her performance has improved continuously, so she sets PBs frequently and is working her way up the international ladder. She holds the record times in Serbia for all race distances. She joined us again for dryland training in the summer of 2007 and on the ice again this past fall (2007) before returning to compete again the European Championships in January 2008. During the summer, she competes in mountain biking.