Tamara Oudenaarden of St. Albert announced her retirement from long track speedskating last week.
Oudenaarden, 28, decided to hang up her skates after devoting 21 years to the sport, starting at age seven with the Edmonton Speed Skating Club.
The Bellerose Composite High School alumna competed at the 2009 World Single Distance Championships for Canada and finished 18th in the 500 metres.
Oudenaarden also represented Canada at the World Sprint Championships three years in a row and in her last appearance placed 11th in the 500m in 2010.
She also raced in 21 World Cup stages and at the 2010 Olympic Games was a member of the Canadian team as an alternate.
“The biggest thing that I will take away from speedskating is not the results I attained, but comes from the process of being a good speedskater. Since moving to Calgary, I had the pleasure of being part of a couple of teams, each coached by someone different and which always had different people in it. Yet, we always became a family unit, creating memories together and friendships from the daily training, competing, travelling and training camps that will last a lifetime. I have so much love for my skating family,” Oudenaarden said in a press release.
“One of my greatest memories has to be the Olympic Trials, when a huge group made up of my family and friends came out and they were all wearing red Team Tamara shirts. They were so rowdy and excited when I walked up the stairs after I was named to the Olympic team in 2010. They were also all there in 2014 in the stands with open arms and hugs when I walked up with tears in my eyes when I hadn’t made the team. It was so special that they were there for both moments in my life and I’m just so grateful to have such supportive friends and family. I am just so blessed to have had such constant love and support and encouragement throughout all my years as a speed skater,” said one of the inaugural 24 inductees into the St. Albert Skating Wall of Fame for individuals achieving national or professional accomplishments.
Oudenaarden plans to go back to school fulltime in a nursing program and get involved in coaching.
Duncan Maguire of the St. Albert Rugby Football Club scored a try in his test debut for Canada at the Americas Rugby Championship on Saturday in Austin, Texas.
Maguire took a pop pass off the floor from scrumhalf Gradyn Bowd before accelerating past the USA Eagles’ back line into the try area in the second half of the 30-22 loss. It was Canada’s only try of the match.
The flashy fullback/winger with the SARFC fantastic firsts, the defending Labatt’s Cup premier men’s provincial champions, and high school rugby product of the St. Albert Skyhawks has also played for the national 7s team.
Kyle Gilmour, a Team Canada flanker at the 2015 World Cup of Rugby and SARFC alumnus, didn’t play against the USA because of an undisclosed injury.
Clay Panga, last year’s player/head coach at SARFC, was in the starting 15 at eight-man for the second ARC match in a row and Kyle Baillie, a second row with ties to SARFC who is now based in the Maritimes, also made his test debut.
Canada is 1-1 in the ARC fixtures and the next match is Saturday against Brazil at Westhills Stadium in Langford, B.C., before going to South America for dates with Chile and Argentina.
Canada kicked off the ARC campaign by beating Uruguay 33-17 Feb. 6 at Westhills Stadium.
Aaron (The Boss) Bosiak of St. Albert will be honoured as Edmonton’s National Mixed Martial Arts Fighter of the Year for 2015 by the Edmonton Combative Sports Committee next Wednesday.
Bosiak, a lightweight, fought three times last year and finished all three opponents in a combined total of two minutes and 58 seconds. His pro record is 4-0.
Bosiak, 34, will compete for the inaugural Unified MMA Lightweight Championship at #Unified27 on May 13 at the Capilano Convention Centre against an opponent still to be determined.
Bosiak hopes to train at Jackson’s MMA fight camp in Albuquerque, New Mexico, prior to #Unified27 and a silent auction/fundraiser is on tap Feb. 26 at the Beer Hunter, starting at 7 p.m., to assistance his endeavours.
Bosiak, who once tipped the scales at 270 pounds and smoked two packs of cigarettes a day, attended a live MMA event in Edmonton when he ran into welterweight Sheldon Westcott, a childhood friend who is 10-3-1, and used the Paul Kane High School alumnus as his role model while breaking into the sport.
Bosiak also went on a reality show called Make Me A Fighter, which never made it on air, but won the event.
Bosiak is affiliated with Complete Fitness and Martial Arts in Campbell Business Park.
Tryouts start March 1 for the St. Albert Crude Junior B Lacrosse Club at Servus Credit Union Place.
Non-drafted graduating midgets, free agents, Crude draftees and returning Crude players are invited to attend. The cost is $75.
The open camp consists of five sessions and the invitational camp, from March 24 to the 31, features four sessions.
Players released after the fifth session of the open camp on March 22 will become free agents and can tryout for another junior B team.
For more information, contact head coach/general manager Terry Dokken at [email protected] or Kevin Chysyk, the registrar, at [email protected].
The Crude finished fourth in the Tier I north division last year at 8-13 and lost the best-of-five provincial qualifier in three games to the first-place Red Deer Rampage (14-5-1). The Crude lost all six games against the Rampage in league and playoffs combined.
