RACE RESULTS IN THE 2009-2010 SEASON In chronological order. For a calendar of all the meets in Ontario, click to see the list on the Ontario Speed Skating Association's website. 1ST. WESTERN ONTARIO REGION ABILITY MEET: LONDON OCTOBER 03-04 2009 Two of our experienced racers competed in the first Western Region race meet of the season. Jonathan Nishio competed in the Alpha division, the fastest, and was the youngest competitor in it. He performed very credibly in the presence of faster skaters and finished a very credible 6th. place of ten, being in two A finals and two B finals. He did not set any PBs, but instead gained experience in skating in the middle of the group, requiring strategies to deal with the skaters behind and those in front. Heidi Beck raced in the Delta division and finished 5th. overall, being in three A finals and one B final. She likewise did not set any PBs, but she was close to them in all distances. A good meet which bodes well for the rest of the season. 1ST. EASTERN ONTARIO REGION ABILITY MEET: BELLEVILLE OCTOBER 03 2009 CAMERON MITCHELL WINS BRONZE Four of our experienced racers competed in the first Eastern Region race meet of the season. Cameron Mitchell competed in the Alpha division, the fastest, and finished a convincing 3rd. overall to take the bronze medal. He also set two PBs in three distances, taking off a remarkable 1.44 s from his best 500m time to bring it down to 47.84 s, and likewise lopped off an impressive 1.93 s from his 1000m time to bring it down to 1:40.69. Claire DesRosiers Kyle Graham Breanna Chapman ONTARIO CUP #1 : GLOUCESTER, OCTOBER 17-18 2009 Cameron Mitchell Jonathan Nishio Heidi Beck Claire DesRosiers WORLD CUP LONG TRACK NATIONAL TEAM SELECTIONS : RICHMOND, BC OCTOBER 17-20 2009 JORDAN BELCHOS WINS 10,000M EVENT AND ANDREW GODBOUT QUALIFIES. BELCHOS ALSO QUALIFIES IN 5,000M EVENT Jordan Belchos won the 10,000m event at the Canadian selections for the Long Track Speed Skating Fall World Cup races. Racing on Tuesday October 20 on the new 400m oval built for next February's Olympic Winter Games in Richmond, BC, he took the top step on the podium by completing the gruelling 25 lap distance in a time of 13 min 55.07s, beating Mathieu Giroux who finished in second place in 14:00.04, and Keith Sulzer third in 14:14.72. Finishing first in the 10,000m event gave Jordan Belchos his first victory at a national selection competition. Paired in same race as Giroux, the 20 year-old athlete was satisfied with his performance. "We were close throughout the race, but I had the lead. I knew that Mathieu would speed up towards the end, so I had to create a gap - I expected the race to go that way." "I like the 10,000m, because you can establish a rhythm and try to hang on; that’s the event I prefer" he said. This win puts him in contention to be on Canada's Olympic team which will be decided at the team trials at the end of this year. Andrew Godbout finished the same event in 5th. place in 14:22.74, which will also give him a berth World Cup races this year. Two days earlier, Belchos qualified for the World Cup 5,000m events as well by finishing in 4th. place in a time of 6:40.78. Godbout placed 9th. in 6:51.30. 2ND. WESTERN ONTARIO REGION ABILITY MEET #2: CLARINGTON OCTOBER 17 2009 A record number of children, 11, plus one masters skater, participated in this event and brought home a record number of medals, five! Furthermore, all skaters set PBs, so it was a very successful day. BROTHERS RASA (l) AND NIMA (r) RAHNEMA WIN GOLD CAMERON MITCHELL (l) AND HUGO LI (r) WIN SILVER SCOTT TAYLOR WINS BRONZE First-time racer Heidi Beck Claire DesRosiers Breanna Chapman Iain King (#3) First-time racer Trevor Morton First-time racer Claire Liew First-time racer Roger Buxton All photographs above at this meet copyright May Rahnema 2009 . ONTARIO CUP #2 MEET: CAMBRIDGE, NOVEMBER 07 - 08 2009 Six skaters qualified, and five competed in this meet. CAMERON MITCHELL WINS BRONZE Cameron Mitchell (left) won third place overall in the Juvenile Boys division, while Jonathan Nishio (right) captured sixth. Heidi Beck finished 21st. in the Women's Open A division. Breanna Chapman (left)) and Claire DesRosiers (right) in the Midget Girls division. Claire finished 17th. and Breanna 19th. Hugo Li qualified in the Midget Boys division but was unable to attend the meet. WESTERN REGIONAL #3 MEET: BRAMPTON, NOVEMBER 28 2009 OLYMPIC CELEBRATION MEET: MARKHAM, DECEMBER 05 2009 The medal insert. This was the first race meet that our Club had hosted, and due to the great effort and generous donations of many people in the Club, it was a great success. See the race meet page for details of the event, A record number of skaters from the Club entered this meet, and all skated hard and well. They also won a record number of medals: 4 gold       (Zubin Sethna, Chantal Singer, Jared Martineau, and Graeme Mitchell) 1 silver     (Peter Treacy) 2 bronze   (Nima Rahnema and Rasa Rahnema). Three skaters broke the 60s mark for 500m: Kyle Graham       58.39 s Peter Treacy       59.27 s Raphael Bérard   59.83 s. Alexy Bérard Breanna Chapman Breanna Chapman (l), Claire DesRosiers (c), and Hugo Li (r) Claire Liew Chantal Singer Graeme Mitchell Gabriella Treacy Heidi Beck Iain King Jared Martineau Rasa Rahnema Kyle Graham (l) and Nima Rahnema (r) Peter Treacy Raphael Bérard (#3) and Zubin Sethna (#4). All photographs above at this meet copyright Ken Harrington 2009. Visit A Shot On Site to purchase copies of these and other photographs. Overall Results Division Skater Place Comment Bravo Heidi Beck 5th. Charlie Peter Treacy 2nd. Delta Zubin Sethna 1st. Raphael Bérard 5th. Echo Chantal Singer 1st. Alexy Bérard 6th. Foxtrot Nima Rahnema 3rd. Kyle Graham 5th. Hugo Li 7th. Breanna Chapman 8th. PB in 500m Claire DesRosiers 9th. Golf Rasa Rahnema 3rd. Hotel Jared Martineau 1st. Iain King 6th. Gabriella Treacy 7th. India Graeme Mitchell 1st. First time racer Nathan Pan 9th. First time racer Claire Liew 10th. ONTARIO CUP #3 MEET: CLARINGTON, DECEMBER 12 - 13 2009 Five skaters competed in this event. Heidi Beck finished 17th. in the Women's Open A division, up from OCup #2. She set a PB of 55.23s in her 500m. Cameron Mitchell skated as well as usual in the Juvenile Boys division, which is to say in the top three in speed, but a series of misfortunes set him back to 9th. place overall. He was leading to the finish line in his opening 777m with the fastest heat time, but lost balance in the last stride and fell, crossing the line in 2nd. place. He subsequently won the B final. In his 500m quarter final, he was again leading, but stepped on a block and fell, which knocked him out of the semi-finals. He had little trouble winning the G final. He finished his 666m heat in 3rd. place, but with a fast enough time for the B final, which he finished in 2nd. place in a time 1.4s faster than his heat. Seeded into the B final of the 1000m, he finished in 2nd. place in 1:42.10, which was faster than all the skaters in the A final. Jonathan Nishio also skated in the Juvenile Boys division and finished 6th. overall. He qualified for the B final of the 777m which he finished in 2nd. place. He skated well in his 500m races, becoming progressively faster from the quarter final to the B final, which he finished in 3rd. place with a PB of 49.11s. He qualified for the A final in the 666m, which he finished in 4th. place with a good time of 1:09.66. He was then seeded into the A final of the 1000m, which he finished in 6th. place in 1:45.44. Breanna Chapman 14th. overall in Midget girls, up from OCup #2. PB in 333m of 43.20 s and PB in 500m of 1:04.18, 2s faster than the PB she set the previous week. Claire DesRosiers 15th. overall in Midget girls, up from OCup #2. PB in 500m of 1:02.21. CANADIAN SINGLE DISTANCE (LONG TRACK) CHAMPIONSIPS, CALGARY, DECEMBER 28 2009 - JANUARY 02 2010 BELCHOS WINS SILVER IN 10,000M Andrew Godbout and Jordan Belchos competed in this long track competition in Calgary over the New Year week which also serves as the Olympic team qualifier for several distances. As both skaters are long distance specialists, they did best in the 10,000m event: Jordan finished second in 13:55.08, repeating his performance of last year, and Andrew fourth in 14:06.35, up from seventh last year. As no Canadian will skate this distance at the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games, several other long-distance specialists did not participate, but Andrew's and Jordan's performances were excellent regardless. In the 5000m event which did have full field of competitors, Jordan was 10th. in 6:40.64 and Andrew was 11th. in 6:42.17: again, excellent results. Andrew also raced in two other distances, mostly for the points and experience. In the 1,500 m distance, he finished 30th. in 1:53.46, and in the 500m, he finished 27th. in 37.63. WESTERN REGION #4 OAKVILLE JANUARY 17 2010 CLAIRE DESROSIERS WINS SILVER BREANNA CHAPMAN WINS BRONZE Heidi Beck Bravo division 14th. Scott Taylor Foxtrot division 8th. WESTERN REGION #5 TORONTO JANUARY 30 2010 ZUBIN SETHNA AND NIMA RAHNEMA WIN SILVER CLAIRE LIEW WINS BRONZE Of the eleven participants, three won medals. Rasa Rahnema and Graeme Mitchell finished just out of the medals in fourth place in their divisions. Personal best times fell frequently too. Breanna Chapman (11), Claire Liew (7), Graeme Mitchell (9), Zubin Sethna (15), Rasa Rahnema (9), and Nima Rahnema (11) all set PBs in both distances, while Claire DesRosiers (12), Kyle Graham (11), Jonathan Nishio (14), and Chantal Singer (14) set PBs in one distance. DesRosiers and Graham came tantalizing close to breaking the 60 second mark for 500 metres, with DesRosiers clocked at 60.29 and Graham even closer at 60.06: the latter is under half a metre from the goal! They will have other opportunities in the remainder of the racing season. Graham's results qualify him for the final Ontario Cup series race meet (#4), so he will join other Markham skaters at that event in mid-February. The Club also fielded two mixed-age relay teams, one of boys and the other of girls. Each team raced 1500m distances and performed very confidently and well throughout the usual fast-paced excitement. ONTARIO CUP #4 MEET: WATERLOO, FEBRUARY 13-14 2010 Four skaters competed in this event, the last in the OCup series before the Ontario Age Class Championships. Kyle Graham in Midget Boys Cameron Mitchell and Jonathan Nishio in Juvenile Boys Heidi Beck in Junior Women. WESTERN REGION #6 BARRIE FEBRUARY 27 2010 ZUBIN SETHNA WINS SILVER AND NICK SHALAGAN WINS BRONZE Zubin Sethna, 15, captured a silver medal (again!) in the Echo division. Nick Shalagan, 26, won a bronze in the Charlie division of adults in his second-ever race meet. Both skaters set personal best times in both their distances to achieve their results. Seven other skaters from the Club competed in the event, with four of them being in their first year of racing which put them on a rapid learning curve. Most set personal best times in at least one distance. Claire Liew, 7, competed in the youngest division (November) and placed 5th. overall. She improved her time for 111 metres by an significant 7.5% in the past month, but was not able to improve on her 222m time. Trevor Morton, 8, competed in the Mike division in just his second competition and set PBs in both distances on his way to placing 6th. overall. He likewise had an impressive 8.5% reduction in his 222m time, and also reduced his 111m time, but not by such a large margin. Graeme Mitchell, 9, and Jared Martineau, 8, both raced in the Lima division. Mitchell finishing 4th. overall and Martineau 13th. Mitchell improved his 333m time by a remarkable 13.5% and his 222m time by a somewhat lesser but no less important 5.5%. Martineau came into the competition recovering from an illness and did not manage any PBs despite a strong effort. Breanna Chapman, 12, faced strong competition in the India division and succeeded in setting PBs in both her distances, improving the ones set just a month ago, which put her 13th. overall. Kyle Graham, 12, raced well in the Hotel division but close traffic denied him any PBs and he finished 11th. overall. Jonathan Nishio, 14, competed in the Alpha division, the top division, and placed 6th. overall in some good races, but away from any PBs. RACE RESULTS FROM EARLIER SEASONS: 2008-2009 2007-2008 2006-2007 2005-2006 2004-2005