Speedskaters find success in capital
Bompas Elementary students rake in medals galore at NWT Speed Skating Championships in Yellowknife
April Hudson
Northern News Services
Thursday, March 24, 2016
SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE RIVER
Ten young people from Fort Simpson skated to victory at the Northwest Territories Speed Skating Championships, held the last weekend in February in Yellowknife.
Maliq Barnard manages to get off the start line a bit quicker than Rhys Dowdeswell of Fort Simpson. - James McCarthy/NNSL photo
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The championship ran from Feb. 27 to 28 and saw around 100 skaters hit the ice.
In total, Fort Simpson's delegation brought home three gold, four silver and two bronze medals - one for each athlete, who competed in three age groups.
Each age group was further broken down into divisions.
Fort Simpson girls dominated the Learning to Train Division 1 A category, snatching up gold, silver and bronze. Skaters competed in each of the 100-metre, 200-metre, 400-metre and 1,500-metre heats.
Gold went to Jamie Deneyoua-Nahanni, while her sister Tamara took silver. Ava Erasmus claimed bronze.
Erasmus, 11, said the championship went well and she was happy to see how well Fort Simpson did.
This season, she has been focusing on some of the technical aspects of the sport, such as corners.
"I worked on building my speed and maintaining that in straightaways," she said.
"I improved that."
Also in Learning to Train Division 1, Jaicee Tsetso claimed a silver medal in the C category.
Learning to Train Division 2 saw Mikayla Lafferty compete in each of the heats, coming away with a bronze medal in the A category.
Fundamentals Division 1 had four Fort Simpson athletes compete, including two who have only been skating since the beginning of 2016.
Amaria Tanche-Hanna competed in 100-metre, 200-metre, 400-metre and 500-metre heats and came away with a silver medal in the A category, while Katie Noseworthy took gold for the C category.
In the D category, Rhys Dowdeswell and Gombee Jose took gold and silver, respectively.
Dowdeswell, 8, and Noseworthy, 7, are both brand new to the sport.
"The hardest part is doing crossovers," said Dowdeswell, referring to a technique that allows skaters to turn corners.
"Using the outside edge of the skates is tricky."
For Noseworthy, one of the tough parts of speedskating is lifting her blades off the ice.
"Speedskating is challenging because of the longer blades," she said.
She has been watching older speedskaters do backward crossovers and is looking forward to future years when she can catch up to that level.
For now, Noseworthy is content to chase Gombee Jose, who has been speedskating for two years now.
"She's way faster than me," Noseworthy said.
Jose said she is still working on perfecting her crossovers but enjoyed competing in Yellowknife.
"It was pretty cool," she said.
Fort Simpson's speedskaters generally practise every two days while the arena is open.
Skaters also competed in a 2,000-metre relay. In that competition, Lafferty and Erasmus placed second for their division, while Tsetso and Tamara Deneyoua-Nahanni placed second in theirs as well.
Jamie Deneyoua-Nahanni placed third.
