Day 1- The 2004 Roller Sports Ontario Outdoor Championships kicked off on June 5th at Conestoga College in Kitchener. The event, which had a record number of participants, marked an ever growing skating scene in Ontario. Skaters competed on a 250 meter smooth track under cloudless blue skies and in wind conditions which were quite low. The Ontario skaters competed in this event as a prelude to the Roller Sports Canada Outdoor Championships, which are taking place July 1st to the 5th, with the kick off event being the RSC National Marathon in Cambridge. Herb Gayle helped open the event with a rendition of Canada�s national anthem on the trumpet.

Day 2- All the skaters convened on Sunday morning under an overcast sky to compete in the remaining events of the Roller Sports Ontario Outdoor Championships. The races were all competitive and one of the highlights of the weekend was that despite all the tight races, there was only two crashes, one of them taking place in the warm-up on day 1, and the other in the last race of the meet: the senior men's 500 meter sprint. The officials and volunteers did a top-notch job making sure that the event was well run.

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Day 1 photos

Day 2 photos

Herb Gayle played the Canadian national anthem on the guitar during the openning ceremonies.

A strong group from the Ottawa Urban Inliners came down and posted some encouraging results, including podium finishes in the Senior Men, Senior Women, and Master Women's categories. Left to right are Sergio Almeralla, Inga Petri, Stephane Tremblay, Gillian Clarke, Dominique Lalonde, Adrian Loewen, Zsolt Finta, Jean Francois Messier, and Brad Sneider. Sneider competed for his first time on the track.

Camillo Echeverri edges out Aaron Arndt and Leonardo Echeverri in the early stages of the 10km points/ elimination senior men's race. Also in the picture is Sergio Almeralla. The race took place at about 11:00am because Benoit Joubert asked if the race could take place earlier so that he could attend his mother's 56th birthday party.

The start of the senior men's 20km elimination early on Sunday morning.

That's me in the front, pointing to Sergio Almeralla, who was out on a break, about 1/2 lap ahead of the pack. I was letting him know that I was coming after him. Behind me are Camillo Echeverri, Eric Gee, Aaron Arndt, Leonardo Echeverri, and the legendary Mike Murray.

Chelsea Parry leads Shannon Hegarty, Tatia Wallace, and Dominique Lalonde in the 20km elimination race. Tatia Wallace ended up taking the gold medal in the race; in fact, Wallace took the top honours in every race, continuing her winning streak from last weekend's ING National Capital Marathon in Ottawa.

Dean Arndt leads Toronto Inline mates Jordan Belchos and Tom Hanham. Belchos took the gold in this 20km elimination race as well as the 10km points/ elimination race, but Arndt took the gold in the 300m and 500m sprint races, on his way to collecting enough points for the overall junior men's title.

John Fischer starts his 5000m elimination race with the novice women. From left to right for the novice women are Inga Petri, Sue Burnside, and Melanie Hunter. All of the novice women's races ended up in very close sprint finishes.

The senior women start their 500 meter sprint final. From left to right are Dominique Lalonde, Shannon Hegarty, Carolyn Gullo, and Tatia Wallace.

Tri Cities' Jason Fischer before the junior men's 500 meter sprint.

Herb Gayle leads Dave Taras, Paul Shoebridge, and Len Porter in the master/ grand master men's 10km points race.

Jade Pauley starts off strong in the juvenile boys 500 meter sprint race. From left to right are Jade Pauley, Alex Newdick, Jeff Burnside, and Austin Belchos.

The start of the senior men's 500 meter sprint race saw Camillo Echeverri (inside) take an early win and manage to hold on for the win. From left to right are Aaron Arndt, Andrew Hegarty, Eric Gee (you can see his leg a little), Leonardo Echeverri, and Camillo Echeverri.

Group shot at the end of the meet.

©Peter Doucet and www.RaceReports.net