Successful weekend for Lethbridge speedskaters at Alberta Long Track Championships

Seventeen skaters from the Lethbridge Speed Skating Association competed at the Alberta Long Track Championships held in Calgary last weekend.

More than 200 skaters from Alberta, Saskatchewan, British Columbia and Montana competed at the event. The meet was the qualifier for Alberta T2T (Training to Train) skaters to attend the Canadian Age Class Long Track Championships which are being held in Quebec City, Feb. 10-11.

All skaters achieved personal best times in many of their races while Jasmine Belisle qualified for the Canadian Age Class Long Track Championships in the T2T 14 Female class.

The week before, Lethbridge skater Kaleb Muller skated personal-best times in each of his distances at the Canada Cup 2 held at the Olympic Oval in Calgary and is now ranked fifth in the world in the male junior 5,000m distance.

Muller, also a member of the Alberta provincial speedskating team, finished first overall in the 5,000m on Jan. 5, skating the distance in 6:36:94 and breaking his previous best time by almost seven seconds.

In his other events, Muller clocked a time of 37:52 in the 500m to place 17th on Jan. 4, and on Jan. 6 placed 18th in the 500m with a time of 37:42.

Also on Jan. 6, Muller took fifth place in the 1,500m race with a time of 1:51:71.

Muller is preparing for the Canadian Junior Long Track Championships Feb, 2-4 in Fort St. John, B.C. with the goal of attending the World Junior Championship in Salt Lake City in March.

Alberta long track results for all Lethbridge Speed Skating members are listed below: Division 1 Jonnathan McIntosh, 2nd; Carson Love, 3rd; Zakhary Adelman, 5th; Braden Kremenik, 7th Division 2 Jared Belisle, 10th Division 3 Denise Wesseling, 16th; Hudson Dyck, 18th Division 5 Zoe Wesseling, 9th; Elliot Pilsner-Roberts, 13th; Cassie Love, 15th; Colby Pilsner-Roberts, 17th T2T 11/12 Girls Mikka Eaves, 11th; Jasmine Sinclair, 19th; Abby Reimer, 30th T2T 12/13 Boys Riley Vanderburgh, 22nd; Mitchell Wesseling, 25th T2T 13/14 Girls Jasmine Belisle, 7th

Photo submitted by Barb Belisle Three Lethbridge skaters, Zakh Adelman, Braeden Kremenik and Carson Love, race in the Division 1, 500-metre Mass Start A Final.