Saskatoon – Josie Spence, a speed skater with the Kamloops River City Racers Club, secured a spot on the Canadian Junior Long Track Team this past weekend at Junior Nationals and will be representing Canada at the Junior Worlds in Obihiro Japan on March 3 and 4th.
At the Junior National Championships this past weekend Josie raced to personal best times in all of her four distances skated. She was a double silver medalist, once in the 1500m with a personal best time of 2:15.47 and a second time in the 3000m event with a personal best time of 4:49.92. She placed fifth in the 500m event in a personal best time of 43.55 and sixth in the 1000m event in a personal best time of 1:28.60.
The top 4 male and 4 female skaters from this event were named to the World Team. Joining Josie on the female team are Kate Hanley of Alberta, Heather McLean of Manitoba and Meryem Labidi of Quebec. Josie’s next competition will be the Junior World Cup event in Calgary this coming weekend.
Younger sister Sara also qualified to compete in the Junior National Championships in Saskatoon this weekend and placed 13th overall with personal bests in all four distances she skated: 45.53 in the 500m; 1:33.86 in the 1000m; 2:29.57 in the 1500m; and a whopping 26sec personal best in the 3000m for a new time of 5:10.89.
Tori Spence, the eldest sister, was racing in the Canada Cup division of the Saskatoon races and finished with a first place in the 3000m event in a new personal best time of 4:39.87. Tori was second in the 1500m with a new personal best and provincial record of 2:14.39. She was 5th in the 1000m event and 7th in the 500m.
Sara and Tori will be competing in the North American Championships this weekend in Calgary. Tori will be racing her second World Cup event in Heerenveen, Netherlands the same weekend her sister Josie will be in Japan, March 3 and 4th.
