The 3rd Roller Sports Ontario Outdoor Series of the season took place this past Saturday in Toronto. The event took place under ideal conditions.

The Toronto Inline Skating Club and a number of volunteers, including Wayne Burrett, Gillian Clarke, Alex Perrie, Pam Perrie, and Jacky Shu helped make the race a success.

Pictures [click for Peter Doucet/ Morgane Echardour/ Georg Nikodym’s photos]

Results [1500m time trial] [500m] [10km] [Stage rankings] [Overall series rankings]

Morgane Williams leads Morgane Echardour and Scott Pauley in their 500-meter race- photo Peter Doucet/ Speed Skate World

The final event of the 2008 World Roller Speed Skating Championships- the marathon- was held on Friday on a road running along the ocean. The marathon was followed by an awards ceremony, a banquet, and a party at a night club.

The road portion of the World Championships were held on a 400+ meter closed circuit. The Canadian team skated a strong competition with skaters qualifying for finals in distance races and with skaters also setting personal best times.

Unfortunately, the Canadian skaters suffered a number of falls and injuries during the championship. Of the 9 skaters who represented Canada, only one managed to avoid falling!

You can find all the results on the official website and a lot of pictures and more on Mundo Patin. Peter Doucet also provided some pictures and reporting on Speed Skate World. You can also view some images on Skating Around The World.

The road portion of the World Championships were held on a 400+ meter closed circuit.

The 2008 Canadian Speed World Team is in currently in Spain representing Canada at the World Roller Speed Skating Championships.

Many World Records have been set during this World Championship’s racing on the 200-meter banked track. A few of the team members made it out of heats and into some finals during the first three days of track racing.

A few of our Canadian team members were involved in multi-skater pile ups. Morgane Echardour and Sarah Hopkins went down in a 10+ skater fall in their 15km elimination race while Peter Doucet went down hard at the start of his 10km points race heat.

Athletes enjoye a day of rest today. Racing resumes tomorrow where athletes will race on a road circuit. More records are expect to fall during the compeition on the road course.

The Canadian team is on pace for its strongest finish ever in the overall team standings.

The Canadian Speed World Team attended the opening ceremony for the 2008 World Roller Speed Skating Championships in Gijon, Spain. The team enjoyed marching out behind the Canadian flag and were treated to a show that included music, dance, and skits.

Left to right: Chelsea Parry, Jade Pauley, Sarah Hopkins, Travis Shaw, and Alex Perrie (in the back)

Left to right: Alex D’mello, Brett Leavens, Travis Shaw, Jade Pauley, Chelsea Parry, Peter Doucet, Morgane Echardour, Sarah Hopkins, and Leah Kaluta

Marching out

The 2008 Canadian World Team is now fully assembled in Gijon, Spain, for their final preparations for the World Roller Speed Skating Championships.

The team of nine skaters and three support staff kicks off their Championships on Thursday September 4th. Click here to see who’s on the 2008 World Team. Go to the official site lots of information including race schedules.

Peter Doucet is providing some coverage on SpeedSkateWorld.com

The entire team has been sporting Canada’s newest racing uniform-

Brett Leavens

The results from the 3rd Roller Sports Ontario Outdoor Series can be found by using the following links;

[Time trials] [Sprints] [Distance races] [Stage 3 final ranking] [Overall series ranking after two events]

The next RSO Outdoor Series will be on September 20th in Toronto. The season finale takes place on October 12th in Toronto.

The Ottawa Inline Skating Festival took place this Sunday. Reports say that the weather was perfect and that the race course was fast.

Use the follwing links for results [5km] [10km] [21km] [42km]

Alicia Weiss posted her pictures- click here to view them.

The following are reports on the event: Ottawa Inline Festival and Ottawa Results.

Photo from a Leesh

Ottawa skaters and the Ottawa Inline Skating Fesitval are featured in Metro- read more in Skating in the summertime.

“Ottawa is a really green, scenic city with so many bike paths,” said Garvin. “There’s paths downtown, on the Ottawa River Parkway, by Carleton University, by Hog’s Back, on the Aylmer side of the river, towards Woodroffe and Baseline and there’s a path through the Experimental Farm,” said Garvin. “You can skate a 60K loop around Ottawa.”

‘Bailin Xie, 12, and Mike Garvin practice drills at an Ottawa Inline Skating Club meeting‘- photo and caption from from TRACEY TONG/METRO OTTAWA