There is no magical formula to conjure up success for any local sports organization. However, building a solid and expanding base from which to develop your talent will eventually lead to positive results.
In so doing, the Sudbury Sprinters might well have taken one step backwards to move several leaps forward. The local speedskating team boasts only one current Ontario Cup competitor in 10-year-old Alexie Therrien, but has managed to expand the grassroots involvement to more skaters than in any previous year. With time, practice and good coaching, others will join Therrien, battling the best from across the province.
A student at Pavillon de l'Avenir in Chelmsford, Therrien is looking to break new ground this season, hoping to crack the elusive one-minute barrier in the 500-metre event. Her personal best time at that distance is 1:00.53.
"My straightaways need to have longer pushes and my corners have to have faster feet," said the young lady.
As most skaters will tell you, the first few seconds of any race are critical. "You need to focus, in a race, on being the first one off the start," Therrien said.
A couple of years younger, Garrison Hume first became introduced to speedskating some three years ago.
"I thought that it was really cool and that it would be interesting," he said. "Once I tried it, it was really fun."
Like most who take up the sport for the first time, Hume had some experience on hockey skates, undergoing the same adjustment process as most who transition over to the much longer blades.
"It was a little tricky adjusting from regular skates to speed skates, but not that tricky," Hume stated. "Your feet do hurt at the very bottom a little bit when you first start to speed skate and you have to get your balance on speed skates because they're a lot thinner."
While Hume might be a year or two away from O-Cup races, the improvement he is making is noticeable.
"I'm getting better at cross-overs and getting faster," he said. "When you're going around corners, you have to use your arms a lot and you get your feet going a lot, and that's where you get more speed."
Like Hume, Samuelle Bouffard moved to speedskating after first taking to the ice with regular skates, playing a little hockey when she was younger.
Now in her fourth year with the Sprinters, she also recalled the early growing pains. "It was a little weird, because the blades are a lot longer. I couldn't do cross-overs initially because I would hit the heel with my toe and trip and fall."
Like Therrien, this 13-year-old is also eying the one-minute barrier. "I want to improve my technique a little bit, since I'm hoping to get under that time in the 500-metre race."
Anyone who has ever witnessed the sport at an elite level quickly recognizes an element of danger, with falls and flips a part of almost every single competition. Still, these youngsters persevere.
"I was doing a start once and my pick got caught in the ice and I did a penguin slide," explained Bouffard. "I had the wind knocked out of me, but I got up and kept racing."
The Sudbury Sprinters gather for practice every Tuesday and Saturday at 5 p.m. at the Countryside Arena. Further information on the club can be obtained online at www.sudburysprinters.com.
Posted by Laurel Myers
