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Oval prepares for winter skating season

Two-time Canadian Olympian and Lake Placid Speed Skating Club President Patrick Kelly races in one of the meets at the Oval last year. Photo — Christie Sausa

LAKE PLACID – For the first time in more than 20 years, the Olympic Speedskating Oval opened for the season before Thanksgiving.

On Friday, Nov. 21 and Saturday, Nov. 22, speedskaters, figure skaters and hockey players were happily taking laps on the oval, which hostrf speedskating and public skating sessions.

Unfortunately, the oval closed temporarily on Sunday, Nov. 23 due to warm temperatures, as the soft ice was deemed unfit for skating. The oval is expected to reopen after the ice is restored.

A Canadian skater who has been skating in Lake Placid since the early 1990s, Vytas Janusauskas was pleasantly surprised to see the oval opened so early in the season.

“I come to Lake Placid because it’s closer than Quebec City’s oval for me and because the scenery is spectacular,” Janusauskas said. “It was a pleasant surprise to see the oval open so early, it’s too bad there wasn’t ice available on Sunday.”

The Lake Placid Speedskating Oval is also the home of the Lake Placid Speed Skating Club, which began in the 1920s when speed skating was still practiced on Mirror Lake and skaters like Jack Shea and Charles Jewtraw were members. Under new leadership by two-time Olympian Patrick Kelly, the club will continue the tradition of friendly competition with five meets scheduled for the season, including two marathon races.

“We’re having a new afternoon racing format which will be better for the athletes competing,” Kelly said. “The public will also get to see more of the racing using this afternoon format, particularly the skiers who often miss seeing the morning races, but might catch a few races on the return from skiing.”

In addition to a new time format, there is also another upgrade to the speedskating meets.

“We’ve upgraded the timing system to the MyLaps chip system,” Kelly said. “This system has been used in the speedskating events in the last two winter Olympics”

The first race is the Golden Skates Marathon on Dec. 5 through 7, and includes 10-kilometer, 21k and 42k races.

“Marathoning,” as it is called by skaters who consider it their primary type of speed-skating, often travel to several locations including Lake Placid to race, and it is especially popular in Canada. A large group of Canadian skaters often use the oval to train, including national and world level skaters.

On Friday, Dec. 12 and 13, the Charles Jewtraw All Around, will include several different distances, both sprint and long distance.The Jack Shea Sprints Championships, Jan. 9 and 10, and the Irving Jaffee Single Distance Championships on Friday, Feb. 13 and Saturday, Feb. 14 round out the metric races for the season.

The very last race will be the Lake Placid Marathon Finale from Feb. 27 to March 1. Many mathoners from expected to returns for that race.

For more information on Lake Placid Speed Skating Club, including how to register for meets, meet details and how to join the club, go to www.lakeplacidspeed.com. For more information on ice conditions and schedules for the oval, visit www.lakeplacidoval.com.

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