The 66 speedskaters entered in this weekend's Canadian age class short track speed skating championships at Kin 1 arena are about to demonstrate to Prince George audiences how quickly long blades of steel can move on a wide sheet of ice.
Skaters from the host Prince George Blizzard Speed Skating Club have had six weeks to train in Kin 1, built as one of the city's showcase venues for the 2015 Canada Winter Games. Their new home has an Olympic-sized (200 feet long, 100 feet wide) ice surface,which is 15 feet wider and 10 feet longer than the 190 X 85 downtown rink they left behind at the Coliseum.
"It's made a huge difference, the kids have tons of confidence to go full-speed now," said Blizzard coach Adam Ingle. "The new facility is fabulous, it's so much wider than what we had before. It's a different mat system which has a higher crash rating, much safer than what we had before in the [Coliseum].
"The period we had from when we got in the new building to age class was quite short but it gives us that extra year going into Canada Games and that's going to make a big difference for us too."
Ingle said the club has been working closely with city arena staff to create the fastest possible ice conditions.
"We know from our own pre-test event [the Central Interior Challenge] a few weeks ago the ice is pretty quick and it's getting better all the time," said Ingle. "For us now to have wide ice, we can host more of these kind of events rather than having to go away to do it. It all helps getting training partners together and getting high-level coaches together."
Four Blizzard club members have qualified for age class nationals. Lucas Hiller of Prince George is among 16 competitors in the Junior A men's class. Lina Hiller and Callie Swan of Prince George and Madison Pilling of Fort Simpson, N.W.T., will represent the Blizzard in the junior B women's class. The junior B women's list also includes Alison Desmarais of Vanderhoof, a member of the Nechako Clippers Speed Skating Club.
The three-day competition gets underway today at 9:05 a.m. That follows an opening ceremony which starts at 8:30 a.m., to be attended by Mayor Shari Green, Shirley Bond, MLA for Prince George-Mt. Robson, and Canada Games CEO Stuart Ballantyne.
Prince George last hosted the age class national meet in 2001 at the Coliseum. The Blizzard club also played host to the Western Canada Cup/Western Regional Qualifier at CN Centre in November 2005. The first meet at the new Kin 1, the C.I. Challenge, took place on Feb. 15.
Including its masters skaters and its youngest members, the Blizzard club now has about 50 skaters, but Ingle anticipates the spotlight cast on short track during the Olympics and this weekend's age class national meet will encourage more athletes to join.
"Even having just been in this building for a month now we've already noticed some crossover with other athletes from other sports seeing us and wanting to try the sport," said Ingle. "Being in this multi-use venue, where you have hockey players and ringette players coming into the building and walking by will help us boost registration."
Ingle encourages spectators to come check out the races this weekend. Many of the same athletes will be coming back to Prince George next year for the Canada Winter Games. Some of them could be on Canada's 2018 Olympic team headed for Pyongyang, South Korea.
"Age class is where all of the Olympic team skaters come from," said Ingle. "People talk about Canada Games alumni and how many people who won medals in Sochi were Canada Games alumni. For our sport, most of [the Olympic team] came through Canada Games, but all of them will at some point in time have come through an age class nationals."
