High praise for Nunavut speed-skaters

With the conclusion of the short track speed-skating season, I’d like to pass my compliments along to the organizers and skaters in the Nunavut speed-skating clubs.

In the NWT, we don’t see a lot of the Nunavut skaters in a normal season, but this year were with them at the Arctic Winter Games and the 2006 Canadian Age Class Short Track Championships held in Whitehorse.

In the March 17 edition of Nunatsiaq News you provided an Arctic Winter Games summary of the Nunavut medal count and made brief reference to the success of Nunavut speed-skaters.

I’d like to add my comments to say just how terrifically the Nunavut skaters performed. Having coached speed-skating since the early 1990s I’ve watched the progress of the Nunavut skaters from their earliest days in the sport and what a difference there is!

At the Arctic Winter Games, Nunavut skaters competed well in all categories and won more than their share of the medals. It was truly a delight to see a team that used to struggle step up to a position of dominance at the games. So great is the improvement that for the next games, I’ll use Nunavut skater improvement as an incentive for my skaters to train harder.

What a great thing for the sport that another team has developed to the point where the once dominant NWT is not just looking over its shoulder to see who’s coming along, it’s now having to do it’s share of looking ahead to see who has to be caught.

In Whitehorse, Nunavut had four skaters competing at the Canada Post Age Class Short Track Championships. With only a small team from the NWT, I had the pleasure of coaching both the NWT and Nunavut teams through the event. The kids skated admirably and were terrific representatives for Nunavut as they competed against the best skaters from each province and territory in their age category.

Most impressive for Sarah Ali and Nathalie Martel was the improvement they made over the weekend after adjustments were made to their blades. Rarely would a skater make extreme blade adjustments in mid-competition, but it was apparent that adjustments would result in improvement. While both girls had difficulty in their first race after the adjustments, they stuck with the changes and immediately started improving.

After each race, the girls were looking for feedback and then trying to make skating changes to become better. Their achievement of multiple personal best times attests to the success of their efforts. Coaching is so easy when the skaters are eager and wanting to improve.

Manasie Kendall continued to show the enthusiasm and progress that he demonstrated at the Arctic Winter Games, and a gutsy effort that was noticed by many of the provincial coaches. Manasie became stronger as the meet progressed, also producing multiple personal best times. He never quits, no matter where he is relative to the other skaters in a race and always strives to make personal improvement. How good would the world be if everyone tried so hard to be better at whatever they are doing? Manasie constantly looks for feedback, listens well, and puts it to good use.

Aqpiq Peter’s skating drew lots of comment from coaches across the country as well. He has such quick starts, is such a smooth skater and accelerates to pass so well he’s hard not to notice. Aqpik is a pleasure to watch and like the other Nunavut skaters, he’s extremely coachable. Together, Aqpiq and I would plan race strategy before each race and he’d go out and do his best to make it happen. Aqpiq was able to pull off passes at the Canadians that an athlete with so little competition experience should struggle to accomplish. Aqpiq has exceptional skills that simply need more training and competition opportunity to develop.

Competing at the Canadian Championships level is about winning medals for only a few exceptional skaters. For most, it’s about competing well and making improvement. The Nunavut skaters didn’t win any medals at the competition but were extremely successful. They won the admiration of coaches from across the country. Nunavut can certainly be proud of your athletes.

My hat is off to John Maurice of Iqaluit and all of the parents who have worked hard to develop the Nunavut speed skating program. They’ve provided a terrific and invaluable opportunity to a lot of kids.

David Gilday
Coach
NWT Speed Skating