More than 50 skaters from Kamloops, Salmon Arm, Vernon, Burnaby, Richmond along with 23 skaters from the Kelowna Speed Skating Club converged to compete for honours at the Kelowna Invitational Speed Skating Meet, Dec. 6 at CNC.
More than 45 personal best times were set by the Kelowna skaters.
Leading the pack with four personal bests were Erik Haaheim and Talia Halperin.
Setting three PBs were Dylan Baliski, Calla Haaheim, Finn Styles, Joshua Yoon, Noah Rubuliak, Sophia Gaertner, Matthew Hopley, Rosalyn Carr and Tejan Govender. Skaters with 1-2 personal bests were Chloe Yannow, Simon Yannow, Danjela Graves, Eli Schock, Kenzie Adams, Luka deBakker, and Nathan Locke.
“It was great to see some new faces on the starting line as well as new volunteer officials,” said KSCC head coach Nancy Goplen. “We also saw big improvements in all the distances which means our skaters are not only more fit but also technically competent to excel in the quick sprints and the 12, 15, 20 and 30 laps races.”
The next competition for the local skaters is the Alberta Long Track Championship, Jan. 9 to 11 at the Calgary Olympic Oval. This is a meet where many of our skaters such as Nick Goplen, Keara Maguire and Alison Banwell got their first taste of long track with all of them progressing to the national and international level in long track.
New and current skaters are also invited to the Kelowna Family Day meet on Monday afternoon, Feb. 9 at the Capital News Centre.
Registration for the winter season is now open by visiting www.kelownaspeedskating.com
