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Sunday, March 27, 2011

Canada West Short Track Championships

March 27, 2011

Eric Spence of the Kamloops River City Racers Speed Skating Club came home with two gold medals, two new personal best times and a second place overall finish in the 12 year old male division at the Canada West Short Track Championships this weekend in Kelowna. His gold medals came in the 10 minute event and the 3000m points race. He raced to personal best times in the 400m with a new time of 41.55 and a 4th place finish, and in the 100m he placed 5th with a time of 12.08 sec.

Team mates that also qualified for this event were sister Sara who finished 3rd overall in the 14 year old female category with two bronze medals, one silver medal and two personal best times and Anneke Pederson who finished 4th overall in the same age category with one silver and one bronze medal finish and two personal best times. Sara’s silver medal came in the 500m event with a new personal best time of 51.94. Bronze medal finishes came in the 3000m points race and the 100m distance where she set a personal best time of 12.14 sec. Anneke’s silver medal came in the 100m with a new personal best of 11.98 sec and her bronze medal was in the 500m event with a personal best time of 52.42. Anneke placed 6th in the 3000m points race and 4th in the 1500m event.

In the interprovincial team relay event Sara and Anneke combined with Emile Medland of Kelowna and Kaitlin Holtby of Port Coquitlam to finish second to the Alberta girls team. Eric’s relay team also won the silver medal in their category. Team members on this relay, in addition to Eric, were Alexander Chizawsky of Abbotsford, Cormac Chui of Burnaby and Ben Maxfield of Fort St. John. They came second to the 13 year old BC provincial team.

The Canada West Short Track Championships drew the fastest skaters aged 11 to 15yrs from Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta, BC and NWT. This is the highest level of short track competition for this age group and the last competition for the Racers for the 2010-2011 season.

Friday, March 18, 2011

Canada Cup #4

March 18, 2011

Calgary – Tori Spence (18yrs) of the Kamloops River City Racers Speed Skating Club set two new provincial records at her final competition of the season – Canada Cup #4 being held in Calgary this week and weekend. This is an international competition with up to a field of 70 skaters (junior and senior combined) in each distance. (Tori is still a junior skater)

Tori set personal best times in all three of the three distances she has raced so far and two were fast enough to also set new provincial records. New provincial records came in the 3000m with a time of 4:16.19 – the old record was 4:19.35 set by Tori earlier this season. In the 5000m Tori smashed her old time of 7:42.09 setting a new provincial record of 7:16.44 which also was less than a second off the Canadian junior record of 7:15.56. Tori was the second place finisher out of the Canadian skaters who raced this distance.

Tori also set a new personal best time of 41.76 in the 500m distance – her previous time being 41.98. Tori is scheduled to race the 1000m on Saturday and the 1500m on Sunday.

Monday, March 14, 2011

RCR skaters - fantastic performance at recent events!

Monday March 14, 2011

Matej Pederson (9yrs) of the Kamloops River City Racers Speed Skating Club picked up six first place finishes at the Funale meet in Vernon on Saturday. Tim Mburu (9 yrs) came home with two seconds, one third, two fifth and one 6th place finish. Siblings Margaret Jean (6yrs), Alexander (8 yrs) and Delray Willis (11yrs) were also in action at this competition. Margaret Jean skated to four first place and one 2nd place finish, Alexander had four second place and one fourth place finish and Delray raced to two second and two fourth place finishes. All skaters were skating in their respective age divisions.

In other action, the River City Racers came out on top in the Handicap 500m team competition. This regional event was held in Salmon Arm this weekend. River City won with 5235 points, Long Blades were second with 4375 points, in third was Salmon Arm 3110, Nelson with 360 points was fourth, and in fifth was Vernon with 240 points.

This event was organized by the Salmon Arm Club. Each skater raced a 500m and their individual time was compared to their personal best and then tabulated with other team member’s performances. River City Racers coach, Cathy Turnbull Spence stated ” This was a great initiative by Salmon Arm and a great way to build club team spirit. We had Canada Winter Games medalists entered along with first year skaters. Each contributed equally to the team results. In fact the younger skaters had a better chance of earning more points for the team”.

The River City Team was composed of Roman Hessel, Anneke and Matej Pederson, Margaret Jean, Alexander and Delray Willis, and Josie, Sara and Eric Spence.

The following is a quote from the Salmon Arm Coach, Mike Hall:
 “ Congrats to the River City group, your club participation and enthusiasm serves as a lesson to us all. We will have your cup delivered to you on our next trip to Kamloops.”

Tuesday, March 8, 2011

Provincial Work Safe Short Track Championships

Four River City Racers Speed Skaters competed at the Provincial Work Safe Short Track Championships on the weekend in Port Coquitlam and four skaters came home with medals. Sisters Sara (15 yrs) and Josie (17yrs) each skated to gold medal finishes and were crowned provincial champions in their respective age divisions. Brother Eric (12 yrs) and teammate Anneke Pederson (15 yrs) placed second in their respective age divisions and came home with silver provincial medal. Eric set three new personal best times while Sara and Anneke set personal best times in each of the four distances skated.

Based on these results, Eric, Sara and Anneke qualify to skate at the Western Regional Championships in Kelowna on March 26 and 27th. Josie qualifies to compete at the Canadian Championships in Montreal March 19 and 20th.