Toronto’s Sarah Hopkins and Greenfield Park’s Martine Charbonneau and a number of skaters from Toronto and Ottawa traveled to race in Mexico’s  Copa Mexicanidad Chiapaneca.

Sarah Hopkins, who skates with the Scooter’s Indoor Speed Club & TISC, finished 2nd in the 300-meter sprint and 2nd in the 5km points race.

Martine Charbonneau, who lived in Quebec City this year competing in long track ice speed skating, took a few medals in the longer distance races- namely the gold in the 5km points race.

Ottawa’s JF Messier took home the silver medal in the 300-meter time trial with a time slightly over 27-seconds.

You can find some results here and read a Road Rash Chronicles report here.

Bob Tysen, the 2003 Canadian Masters Inline Champion, was recently named as one of seven new inductees into the Kingston & District Sports Hall of Fame. The Hall is recognizing Bob for his outstanding marathon achievements at the provincial and North America levels (both Canada and USA) in speedskating and cycling.

Bob Tysen

Bob now lives in Lake Placid N.Y. after having spent more than twenty years in Kingston, Ontario. A dual United States/Canadian citizen, Bob has competed competitively throughout North America since the early 1980’s. Following on a solid foundation of almost twenty years of Ice Speedskating Marathons, Bob took to roller speed skating in 2002. In 2003 at age 47, he finished 3rd overall in the Canada Inline Cup and had eight top-10 Roller Marathon finishes. That year, he became the Canadian National Master Inline Marathon Champion.

Bob Tysen (#198) at the start of the 2003 Toronto International Inline Marathon

Bob will be officially welcomed into the Sports Hall of Fame family at the 13th Annual Induction Ceremonial Dinner on Friday May 2nd, 2008, at the Ambassador Conference Resort, 1550 Princess Street in Kingston. Cocktails are available at 6:00 p.m. followed by dinner at 7:00 p.m. Tickets are $40.00 each and must be purchased in advance. Tables of ten (10) may be reserved on a first come first serve basis.

Bob Tysen flanked by roller & ice greats Eddy Matzger (left), Aaron Arndt (right), and Olivier Jean

Toronto Inline Skating Club’s Morgan Williams placed 3rd overall at the Metrodome Inline Marathon in Minneapolis. [More]

The third of four races in the Roller Sports Ontario Indoor Series took place today in Mississauga. Dean Arndt was the top overall finisher and Melissa Maas took top honours on the women’s side.

Start of the 1000m group B race- photo from Peter Doucet

The RSO Indoor Series finale is set for April 6th. It will be held in conjunction with the Toronto Inline Skating Club’s open house. [300m time trial results] [500m results] [1000m results] [stage #3 rankings] [Peter Doucet's photos] [RSO Speed Series]

The Official Canada Suits can now be purchased from Il Peloton. The Official Canada Suit was one of two winning designs in the Design Canada! Contest.  $20 from each suit sold will be donated to the 2008 Canadian World Team athletes. Canadian World Team athletes are responsible for the costs of representing Canada at the World Roller Speed Skating Championships. The costs can run upwards of $4000 per athlete. [Click here to purchase a suit]

Photo from Cor1000