Regina club invites public to try long-track speed skating

The Regina Speed Skating Club hosted its first community event at Mount Pleasant Sports Park in effort to attract new members. (Sierra D'Souza Butts/CTV News)

The Regina Speed Skating Club is encouraging people to try long-track speed skating, one of the many events taking place at the Olympic Winter Games in Milano Cortina this month.

The club hosted its first community event at Mount Pleasant Sports Park on Sunday in effort to attract new members.

“Lots of people in the city don’t even know that long track speed skating exists,” said Nancy Armstrong, membership coordinator at the Regina Speed Skating Club.

“We are out here today inviting the community to come out and skate with hockey skates, figure skates, whatever they like, just to make use of the facility that we have … We’re hoping that with the Olympics running right now, there’s lots of people tuning in and catching short track and long track speed skating, and are following our Canadians.”

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As the skates used in the sport are longer than regular skating shoes, long-track speed skating allows skaters to travel further distances on the ice.

With the club being active in the community for years, Armstrong said current and former members have competed nationally.

“We just want to promote the sport to people. There’s so many opportunities for young skaters right now,” she shared.

“There’s skaters in Calgary for Canada Youth Nationals. We’ve had skaters from our club attend Neo-Junior Nationals all across the country. It’s really an awesome way to meet people from all over Canada and, experience the joy of sport and competition.”

Armstrong added the club chose to host its event at Mount Pleasant Sports Park as it is well-used by members throughout the season.

“We are promoting the oval. I think the oval was brought to a lot of people’s attention recently when the city was talking about budget cutbacks,” she explained. “We had lots of people expressed interest in coming out and supporting keeping the oval running.”

During the event, officers with the Regina Police Service (RPS) were in attendance using radar speed guns to test how fast skaters were going.

The club will be offering programs up until the end of March. More details can be found on its website.