The sound of blades slicing has been absent from the Brewer Park speed skating oval this year because of warm January temperatures.
This year has been the worst for the oval, said Ted Huffman, because warm and rainy weather conditions have melted the rink. Huffman has helped maintain Brewer Park’s oval for the past 15 years.
Speed skaters come all the way from British Columbia and Saskatchewan and are disappointed when their tournaments are cancelled, Huffman said.
Paul Landry, president of the Ottawa Pacers Speed Skating Club, also says athletes coming from far away were not happy about the oval’s closure.
“High performance athletes need training time,” Landry says. “Some come from as far as Calgary.”
Other outdoor ovals have experienced the same problems.
The Masters Long Track Meet scheduled for Jan. 12 and the Sault Ste. Marie Long Track meet, Jan.12 to 13, are two other competitions that were cancelled.
Steven Derro, 14, has participated in speed skating for five years with the Ottawa Pacers. He was supposed to compete in the Sault Ste. Marie event that
was cancelled.
“There were mixed emotions,” Derro says. “Some people were happy they didn’t have to drive nine hours, but some were disappointed.”
He also had to wait a week to find out if the provincial skating meet held at Brewer would still happen Jan. 19.
Since the oval froze earlier that week, Derro was able to participate in the event.
But, speed skaters were not the only ones waiting for the oval to freeze again- maintenance workers had to wait as well.
“Right now they’re just sitting at home,” Huffman said, before the oval re-opened.
The Ottawa Pacers would like to have a refrigerated oval like Quebec City’s, where weather would not affect it.
But, Huffman said that would cost the city millions of dollars.
“It’s affecting more and more people,” Landry says. The whole long track could be lost if warm weather continues every year, he says.
Huffman says it’s unlikely the city would pay for a refrigerated oval because it’s a seasonal sport, among other reasons.
“With the canal here, people seem to think there’s not much of a point for an indoor rink,” Huffman says.
He says more well-known sports like hockey usually seem more important to the public.
Landry says the Ottawa Pacers were optimistic that the oval would be up and running soon.
“We have a good base of thick ice,” he says. “It’s not entirely gone, so we have something to work with.”
The long track provincial championships ran from Jan. 19-20 at the oval, which re-opened earlier that week.
Landry says the only thing needed to reopen the Brewer oval was three nights of very cold temperatures.