The Largest Atlantic Canada Speed skating summer camp is underway in Dieppe NB.
Participants have travelled here from across Canada to take part in the first ever Codiac Cyclones short track speed skating event.
Director Christian Gauthier says they are being trained by 12 of the top coaches from across the country, “We have 132 kids, ages 9 to 19. We have some from Nunavut, BC, Quebec and Ontario, and of course we have a cluster from New Brunswick, as well as other provinces.”
Coaching staff, include Francois Hamelin, Francois Drolet and Calgary national coach Maggie Qi. Olympian speed skating celebrity Charles Hamelin will also be in attendance to mentor the athletes latter on in the week.
Many of the high performance program athletes are 2019 Canada Games hopefuls which will be held in February in Red Deer Alberta..
Gauthier says speed skating is comparable to a car race,”Like the Daytona 500 on ice. It is very fast, but very safe, and we have all of the safety equipment required. They do a lap anywhere from 9 to 11 seconds.”
Skaters are training every day this week, from around 7:30am until 6pm. They’ll wrap camp up with a competition on Saturday at Arthur J Leblanc Arena..
“There’s a lot of strategy on the ice to be able to win. Sometimes you’ll see a skater in second or third place, but then all of a sudden, they jump ahead and win the race. it is a combination of individual as well as team sport,” Gauthier says.
For additional information please visit the Codiac Cyclones summer camp website.
