By Darren
Steinke
Gordie Howe Sports Complex
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| Bon Lowe skates at the Clarence Downey Speed Skating Oval. |
The
17-year-old Grade 12 student at Evan Hardy Collegiate has been part of speed
skating since he was placed by his mom in a learn to skate program around age
three.
Lowe used
to play hockey too. He discovered in that sport he liked skating fast on the ice
more than any other aspect of the game.
Feeling
that need for speed, Lowe decided to focus on speed skating. The Saskatoon
Lions Speed Skating Club member enjoyed a fair amount of success in the sport,
but as he grew into his current body size of standing 6-foot-3 and weighing 172
pounds, Lowe is finding his new comfort zone with long track events.
“Right now, I like long track just because I am taller than
most short track skaters are,” said Lowe. “I have been able to do a bit better
at long track.
“It just feels nicer to skate.”
Lowe is a member of the Saskatchewan Speed Skating
Association’s provincial short and long track teams, and he is entering his
first season as a junior level skater. He sees himself specializing in the
5,000-metre and 10,000-metre distances.
Due to his taller height, Lowe believes the longer strides
he can make are a big benefit when it comes to racing in longer distances. He
is also intrigued by the strategy that goes into planning out a race that
covers a longer distance.
“When you skate the longer distances, you have so much time
to think,” said Lowe. “It is not a race that is won by the start.
“It is how you skate all throughout. You kind of have to be
able to think about your race in the middle of it. You have to think about how
you are doing it and what you are doing good and what you are doing bad.
“It gives you lots of time to work on the race, while you are doing the race. You are not necessarily stuck with the result you get right off the start.”
Veteran
Lions coach Tim Comfort has coached Lowe for 10 years and has enjoyed watching
the young skater evolve. Comfort said Lowe reached the top of the podium quite
a bit in younger age groups before he hit his growth spurt.
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| Bon Lowe aims to make longer distances his skating specialty. |
“Nobody could basically touch him. As they grow, you can be
really good when you are young, and then all of a sudden, the day comes when
people catch you, and then you have to decide how much you like it. I love the
character building in that.
“When there is a little bit of adversity and you are not
beating everyone easily anymore, then you really, really, are tested as to how much
you love what you are doing. Anybody that ever plays a sport will have a taste
of that. To see them face that and to figure it out is very, very, fun.”
Comfort
said Lowe had to adjust his skating the taller he grew.
“Every year he has to get used to a new height, because he
has grown so much, and he just doesn’t ever seem to stop,” said Comfort. “He
may be at his adult height, and there are adjustments you have to make to your
new height.
“Speed skating is a highly technical sport. He is needing to
be adaptable and keep learning, because of his new height.”
Comfort has
enjoyed watching Lowe evolve and gain an interest for competing in longer long
track events. With that noted, Comfort added Lowe is still taking his first
strides in a bigger world there.
“He has had some success, but he will have to keep working
at it for a longer period of time, if he is going to be really good at long
track,” said Comfort. “He is really good compared to others his age in Western
Canada and Canada.
“Really good doesn’t mean he is in the top two or three, but
he is still really good. The long legs could help him quite a bit in long
track, if he keeps training.”
To this
point in his career, Lowe has had limited opportunities to skate in a distance
as long as 5,000-metres in competitions. Early last February at long track meet
in Regina, Lowe won the 3,000-metre race in his age category in a time of four
minutes and 55.76 seconds.
Now part of
the junior level of competition, Lowe expects to go through some learning
curves going up against more experienced skaters.
“Now, I am sort of mixed in a bigger pool again,” said Lowe.
“I’m kind of the small fish in the pond.
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| Bon Lowe enjoys being a part of the speed skating community. |
He looks
forward to taking on that adventure as a member of the Lions, because he has
had so many great experiences being part of that club.
“It has been really great,” said Lowe. “Some of my best
friends that I’ve ever had I’ve met with skating.
“Being able to have this community that follows me and
supports me and I can support them back too, not only is it just here in
Saskatoon, but the sport is able to foster a good community all across the
country. I know people all across Canada.
“I think wherever I go, I am able to be apart of this
community of speed skating and of sport in general.”
