Speed skaters earn national spots

The Moose Jaw Kiwanis Speed Skating Club is starting to think they may be a harbinger of bitterly cold weather.
A week after a good outdoor long track speed skating meet in Saskatoon in bitterly cold weather, a few members of the club went to Red Deer for another meet to try to improve some times. While one of the days was good, a blizzard wrecked any chance of trying to get qualifying times for nationals.
MJKSSC coach Glenn Kendall said the cold weather affects the skaters in several areas.
"If it's really really cold, the ice is harder and you don't get as much glide," said Kendall. "Then you have the wind to contend with, which is never a good thing. You have to skate into it going at least once, and you do get a little bit of help going the other way, but most of the time it really knocks some time off. It's really tough."
Because of their work over the last couple of months, club members Josh Gallipeau, Matthew Morris and Lindsay Fysh are heading to the Nationals in Quebec in two weeks. The competition is bound to be tough and new for the skaters.
"They'll be all skating against kids their own age, and . . . they'll be skating against kids they don't know," said Kendall. "They have to try and learn what strategies these people skate with. Sometimes it takes a race or so to figure out what to do in a race, because it's not always about speed."
Skaters don't want to lead a race, he said, because other skaters will draft off the leader until the last lap or so, tiring them out less. All three of this year's club members who are going to nationals this year went to nationals last year as well, which may work to their advantage.
"Again, we've got new skaters, so it's going to be a learning thing for the first couple of races."
In Red Deer, Matthew Morris had a great weekend, Kendall said, and was able to get quite a bit of time off his overall time, which will now qualify him for nationals. Fysh had some nice personal bests which will get her off to nationals as well.
Also in Red Deer, Glenn's daughter Stephanie was trying to get three or four seconds off her time to get a nationals-qualifying time.
"Unfortunately, the weather turned bad for us on Sunday and that didn't happen for her," he said. "She came up three or four seconds short."
A total of 11 skaters braved the cold in Saskatoon Jan. 19 and 20. A few of the skaters were skating up an age group in the competition and weren't getting the times they wanted.

Corey Atkinson can be reached at 691-1260