‘Cool, unique and different’: Barrie to host elite speed-skating event during Ontario Winter Games
Some of province’s fastest young athletes will descend on Barrie’s Allandale Recreation Centre next month as part of the highly anticipated competition
Some of the province’s top speed skaters will be hitting the ice in Barrie next month for the Ontario Winter Games.
While most of the winter games are set to take place in Orillia, the Barrie Speed Skating Club, which operates out of Blue Arena at Allandale Recreation Centre in the city’s south end, will host the speed skating event on Feb. 20 and 21, says club member Mike Besso.
“We have Olympic ice for short-track speed skating,” he said.
The Ontario Winter Games coincide perfectly with the upcoming Winter Olympics in Italy from Feb. 6 to 22, Besso said.
“Typically, speed skating gets a lot more attention and a lot more visibility during the Olympics, where people see on the TV and are easily attracted to the sport because it’s cool, unique and different,” he said, noting speed skating is Canada’s most medalled sport at the Winter Olympics.
Locally, the event will host the top eight racers in each of 14-, 15- and 16-year-old male and female divisions, plus time-qualified alternates, for a total of 64 racers, he said.
Athletes, including Fiona Clark-Sykes, Caitlin Besso and Zoe Hazel from the local club, will compete in the 500-, 1,000-, 1,500- or 3,000-metre relay over the course of the two days.
“It’s a relatively closed field. It’s top racers in the province coming in for a two-day competition,” said Besso. “It’s pretty impressive. Our club, from year to year, we keep on churning out excellent skaters. That is testament to all of the great work of our coaches and our head coach, Denton McNicol.”
Hosting this calibre of competition is a pretty big deal for the Barrie club, which was established in 2003 and currently boasts 25 members, he said.
“It shows our ability to be able to run the event and run it well,” said Besso. “It’s an excellent opportunity for us to be able to showcase our sport and open doors for people to be able to interact with the sport itself.”
A lot goes into preparing for an event like this, he says.
Locally, the club needs to prepare the arena by placing track marking dots on the ice, setting up start and finish lines, installing electronic wiring for e-timing systems, arranging safety mats, and managing glass removal or installation as needed for crew access, said Besso.
“We also coordinate closely with city officials as well as Speed Skating Ontario and Ontario Winter Games organizers,” he added.
Opening ceremonies for the Ontario Winter Games are scheduled for Thursday, Feb. 19, with a second ceremony taking place on Thursday, Feb. 26, in downtown Orillia.
By Nikki Cole, BarrieToday.com
