RSO Championships & Pan Am Trials Recap

RSO Championships & Pan Am Trials Recap: This past weekend (as you probably already know), the Roller Sports Ontario Outdoor Speed Championships took place at the CITC in Harriston, Ontario. The weather on Saturday was sunny and relatively warm, but Sunday saw cloud cover and cold take grip of the entire day.


Paisley Perrie- photo from Shannon Hegarty
The event was well supported from Ontario clubs including Toronto Inline Skating Club, Ottawa Speed Skating, Ottawa Inline Skating Club, Marhkam Inline Skating Club, Northern Roller Sports, Cambridge Inline Skate School, and a number of independent skaters. The event doubled up as the Canadian trials for the Pan American Games team.


Senior World Class/ Pan Am trial women- Martine Charbonneau leads Morgane Echardour, Sarah Hopkins, Pascale Messier, and Chelsea Parry- photo from Shannon Hegarty
Each year, RSO is putting together an increasingly professional event. With Il Peleton setting up shop, the CITC's banked track and new pavillion in good use, the music blaring over the speakers, the wireless mic and electronic timing system, and officials putting out quick results, skaters left very satisfied with a weekend of good skating.


The legend himself; Mike Murray- photo from Shannon Hegarty
Chief referee Alex Perrie posted his thoughts on the weekend on Bont's Message Board. Alex wrote 'Locally CITC hosted the Pan Am Trials and the Provincial Championships. In the Pan Am Trials Senior Ladies events favourite Martine Charrboneau took the sprint but had a tough time in the distance handling newbie Sarah Hopkins.
Bill write that name down. Sarah has come out of the woodwork and gets stonger everytime I see her put on a pair of skates. She is a sponge for knowledge and actually uses what she learns. The other highlight of the womens division was to see how strong Morgane Echardour has gotten from last year. In the Mens division the sprint series came down to the final 500 race with Brian Jalbert running away with it in a fast final. Big Brian has proven all the laws of physics wrong. This big guy can fly.
And finally in the distance the "new and improved" a much fitter and slimmer Peter Doucet proved he had endurance to burn. Peter easily won all the distance event. In the 20k he lapped the field and had the race won but decided to add some hurt by by lapping them a second time. Jade and Jesse Pauley who had challenged up from the junior provided tough competition in all of the races. Watch out for these boys in the future Perhaps the "Double J's" The Provincials saw a lot of new blood in the sport with good results. Paisley for the second year in a row had a clean sweep in the Juvenile division winning all 4 distances and setting a new 300tt Canadian record skating into the 33;s. Cheers Alex '.


Various people- photo from Shannon Hegarty
Some of the many hilights include (I missed a lot of action because I was completely zoned into the Pan American Games trials):
- the juice box hacky sack by some of the teenage skaters
- Paisley Perrie breaking the juvenile girl's 300-meter record
- the Pan Am women's trials- each finish was a nail biter
- the men's Pan Am trials for the sprint position; the sprint spot was decided in the 500-meter final
- there were very few falls. Hieu Bie fell during his warm-up and another skaters toppled over during a race
- the snowflakes falling on Sunday morning...
- officials braving the cold all on Sunday
- the new pavillion was fantastic
- lots of equipment on display and for sale from Il Peleton
- Allain Legacy's amazing 15km points/ elimination race


Senior World Class/ Pan American Games trials men; Brian Jalbert leads Jade Pauley, Jonothan Romyn, and the rest of the pack- photo from Shannon Hegarty