The Prince Albert Speed Skating Club is ready to host skaters from across the province for the one-day short track meet on Saturday. Here, a P.A. skater is seen practicing at the Art Hauser Centre ahead of the Canada Youth Short Track Championships last year. (Image Credit: Logan Lehmann/paNOW)

By Logan Lehmann

Speed Skating

P.A. Speed Skating Club set to host only meet of the season this weekend

Mar 6, 2026 | 1:35 PM

Over a hundred youth speed skaters are putting their skills to the test in Prince Albert this weekend. 

Organizations from around the province are descending on the Art Hauser Centre for the Prince Albert Speed Skating Club’s only meet of the season. 

P.A. Speed Skating head coach Lambert Schwartzenberger said this is the biggest meet that the city has hosted since he’s been a part of the club, adding the skill pool for the weekend is spread from first-year skaters to national championship representatives. 

“It’s a club meet, so they’re just grouped into ability groups, and we have them from all ages and they’re just trying to win their groups. We’ve got kids that are just kind of learning to skate, and this will be their first time racing, probably, right up to masters – most in the 10-to-18-year-old categories, but we’ve got them from all ages.” 

“We have two athletes in our club that are on the Western Elite circuits, which is a three-meet short track circuit that happens throughout the year,” he continued. “There are also younger skaters that are trying to make Western Canadian nationals. They use qualifying times so they’re always trying to get new PBs to qualify to different levels of meet, and then there’s the older skaters that are trying to improve those times to qualify for nationals and those types of things.” 

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Clubs are coming from all around Saskatchewan, including Saskatoon, Regina, Moose Jaw, Melville, and Lloydminster. 

This meet in particular is for short track racing, a competition that normally happens on a smaller ice surface like a hockey rink. That’s not to be confused with long track racing, which typically happens on an outdoor ice surface roughly the same length as a running track. 

“For the youth, short track is skated on a 100-meter track, typically on a hockey rink. We throw pads up on the boards because falls and crashes happen pretty regularly in short track. It’s a bit like a roller derby on ice in short track. And long track is skated on a 400-meter oval. We don’t have a long track oval in Prince Albert, so if our kids want to train long track, the closest place they could go is Saskatoon, and we have had several skaters in the past who have gone to Calgary to train at their indoor Olympic oval.” 

At Saskatoon’s Clarence Downey Speed Skating Oval, they build their ice surface on top of the Gordie Howe Sports Complex’s running track. When asked if the same thing could be done on the recently renovated Harry Jerome Track in Prime Ministers Park, Schwartzenberger said it’s a future possibility. 

“It’s definitely doable, and Saskatoon’s proven that it’s doable. You’d have to convince people that it’s not going to ruin the track, and Saskatoon has a system that works pretty flawlessly.” 

The Prince Albert Speed Skating Club’s short track meet is a one-day event set for Saturday, with races beginning at 9 a.m.

Admission for all spectators is free. 

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loganc.lehmann@pattisonmedia.com