Locals produce at home long-track provincials

Brewer Park played host to the Ontario Long-Track Speed Skating Championships on Jan. 14-15, with local athletes earning a big chunk of the prizes.

Bolstered by a 1st-place finish in the 3,000 metres and a 2nd in the 1,000 m, Gloucester Concordes skater Lily Weidemann – the younger sibling of national team training centre-based athletes Isabelle and Jake Weidemann – was the all-around provincial women’s champion.

Connor Rogerson and Noah Bouma of the Ottawa Pacers and Gloucester’s Antoine Parent all earned a victory and a 2nd-place finish themselves in the provincial men’s competition, while Ottawa’s Robert Gaudreault, Adam Szkraba and Rachel Freitag all hit the provincial podium in the top-tier competition, as did Gloucester’s Nicholas Matthews.

Winning all-around age group crowns were Ottawa skaters Charlotte Babin (8-and-under girls), Blanche Cardinal Tremblay (age 9-10 girls), Rachel Mallard (age 11-12 girls), Zachary Kaiser (8-and-under boys) and Cole Rogerson (age 14-15 boys), and Gloucester’s Edouard Parent (age 12-13 boys).