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June 5, 2003 - OISC at Provincial Outdoor Inline Speed Skating Championships
The inline speed skating outdoor provincial championships were held in Hamilton on June 1st this year. Why only one day? It is because of the rain. On Saturday when we woke up it was raining until we went to bed. So, all races were cancelled. On Sunday however, the sky was clear, the pavement dry and skaters were pumped up to roll their skates on this 300m track.
This year, the club was represented by 9 skaters, all from the racing team: Ray Vermette, Stephane Tremblay, Inga Petri, Jan Riopelle, Dominique Lalonde, Frank Larue, Gavin Thullien, Yves Durand and Pascale Messier. We all gave 100% in each of our 3 races.
Here are some highlights of this unforgettable weekend. In the 10k race Ray lead the pack of 9 senior world class skaters for more than a lap. In the same race, it took 6 laps for Stephane to cover the gap to the chasing pack fighting for the third place. In the process he dropped two strong skaters. Inga was skating in the novice category and did amazingly well in almost all the three races. Not a long time ago she was not able to cross-over and during her long distance race she managed to cross-over smoothly for the whole race and finish second. Despite her anxiety before the races, Jan raced a splendid 10k race in the master lady division finishing second also. Dominique with her great track technique took control of the 500m B final by outskating all skaters from the outside of the turns. Frank was the star of the weekend. At 62, he was the oldest skater racing at the Provincials this year. He was racing in the grand master division, a strong division. With his determination, skill and focus, he was able to give good competition to the other skaters of his division. Even if Gavin did have trained as hard as he wanted to this year, he surprised everyone with a strong 33 seconds at the 300m time trial, one of the most stressful race. Yves showed his character at the 1000m race. Among the master men division, which include the powerful Herb Gayle from Toronto, he managed to outsprint 2 skaters in the last 100m to finish 4th. Pascale showed this year that she is among the elite skaters in Ontario and in Canada. During the 10k race, on several occasions she controlled the pace of the lead pack, was able to outsprint the best skaters in the province and managed to finish the race second.
Congratulations to everyone!
The racing team would also like to thank the club for its support and encouragement received before, during and after the Provincials.
Stephane Tremblay, Racing Team Coordinator
