Hans Schipper of Warmond, Netherlands sprinted to first place finishes in both the 50km Open Canadian Championship Thursday and the 200km marathon Saturday afternoon finishing ahead of van Benthem family members.

Henk van Benthem of Ens, Netherlands finished second to Schipper in both races. In the 200km marathon Merein van Benthem of Innisfail finished third and Andy Dahlstrom of Seattle finished fourth. They were all involved in the sprint to the finish, completing their 20 laps in times of seven hours three minutes and 45 seconds. The 50km Open Canadian Championship saw Rolf van Benthem of Innisfail finish third, Merein van Benthem of Innisfail in fourth place and Dahlstrom in fifth spot. The top four competitors in the 50km race finished with a time of one hour 32 minutes and 56 seconds.

The Spitz Sylvan Lake Ice Marathon, held on a 10km track on the lake, attracted over 150 competitors on Thursday, up significantly from the first races held last year. About 65 people participated in the tour Saturday afternoon.

Organizer Evert van Benthem a two-time champion of the 11 Cities tour in the Netherlands, before immigrating to Canada, said the day was just awesome for the event. With temperatures hovering around -5 degrees C, the event was much better than the first attempt last year when temperatures were in the -25 range. Thursday's event was hampered slightly with falling snow.
"There are lots of people, everybody's positive," he said. His love for speedskating led him to organize the events. Asked the highlight of the day, he said seeing all the skaters enjoying the event.

Sponsors and volunteers are a big part of the event, he said. More than 100 volunteers worked to help the event run smoothly. Racers carried cards which were stamped as they completed each lap of the track. Then there were those working behind the scenes, keeping results, providing food and drink, and all the

other things necessary. They began building the track a week and a half ago, cleaning the surface of the ice and spreading water to fill cracks and create a good skating surface. The non-profit event costs a lot o money to run, he noted. Any proceeds left will be donated to St. John's Ambulance which was on hand throughout the events, and the Children of Guatemala (Friends of the Orphans).

Asked about the future, van Benthem said next year they plan to have professional skaters here to compete in a 200km race on the Friday. This year those skaters were competing in Finland. The plan is for them to begin alternating between Sylvan Lake and Finland. He predicts the event will keep getting bigger and bigger.

Dirk Appel, another of the volunteer organizers, said he was amazed at how the skaters did. Most were skating over their limits they expected to do. "They can't quit. When you're in rhythm you cannot stop," he said. "That happens after they pass about the 50km mark. Then it becomes a mental game," he suggested. He was also happy about the number of skaters who started and finished the 200km marathon.

They estimated there were about 150 people from Netherlands who came to Sylvan Lake to participate in the events. More than 1000 spectators watched the events as skaters passed the finish area.

Saturday the 200km race began at 7 a.m. while 50 and 100km races began at 11a.m. and a 10-50km tour began at noon. That meant that there was a constant flow of skaters past the main area of the track.

The event also attracted international media attention with CBC broadcasting live throughout the day.