The Outdoor Ice Oval Society has cancelled a long track fun meet set for Saturday, in the hopes of ensuring the outdoor rink will be good to go for Sunday’s 29th Annual Iceman…
The winter multi-sporting event is always at the mercy of Mother Nature – two years ago, that meant cancelling entirely, due to extreme cold. Last year, warm weather meant dropping just the skate portion.
Iceman Registrar, Jim Van Bakel, says, fingers are crossed that the full race will be a go. “We have been told by the Oval that, right now, we are good to go.”
“I didn’t realize that they’ve actually cancelled their Saturday event, but we certainly appreciate them doing that to help us put on our event.”
Van Bakel believes the fickle weather may be to blame for a drop in the number of soloists registered – from almost 80 two years ago, to 35 this year. He says training for all five legs is intense and many, understandably, may be a little leery to put in the time and effort with the threat a portion will be cut.
He does says many chose to join teams instead, and total participation is up to 533 adult team members.