Oshawa skater taking serious strides
Oshawa’s Ben Donnelly competes in the 1500 meter during the World Cup Long Track event in Calgary
on Nov. 15. He placed 24th with a time of 1:48.23. However, he topped that by taking a gold medal in the team pursuit. (Photo by Arno Hoogveld / Organizing Committee Calgary)
By Joel Wittnebel/The Oshawa Express
It was nearly a decade ago that Oshawa’s Ben Donnelly first saw a speed skater. Now, he’s on the national team.
The 19-year-old was recently named as one of the 25 skaters to be part of Speed Skating Canada’s Long Track World Cup team for the fall season. Along with fellow Durham native Martin Corbett of Uxbridge, Donnelly is joined on the team by some of the top skaters in the country.
“I think it’s just going to be a really fun experience and good for learning,” Donnelly tells The Oshawa Express.
With several experienced skaters on the roster, Donnelly hopes to pick up a few things.
“They’re really good role models, they give you pointers and they teach you things so it’s really nice to look up to them and they can help you out as much as they can along the way,” he says.
The team competed in this first event on Nov. 13 to 15 in Calgary, and will be taking part in another competition in Salt Lake City this weekend.
Donnelly is competing in the 1,500 metre, the 5 kilometre and the team pursuit, in which he will race alongside two of his teammates.
The appointment to the World Cup circuit isn’t the only success Donnelly has had this season. In September, Donnelly beat the national junior record in the 3,000-metre with a time of 3:45. The previous record, notched at 3:45.98, was set by Justin Warsylewicz, who won a silver medal in the team pursuit with the Canadian team at the 2006 Olympics in Turin, back in 2004.
The next month, Donnelly would go on to finish first in the 1,500-metre race at Fall World Cup Selections.
Introduction to the sport
Donnelly, a graduate of Eastdale CVI, was originally a hockey player, but saw something different during the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy – speed skating.
“I saw it on TV for the first time and right after that one of the clubs was having a ‘come try speed skating’ (event), so I went to it and I tried it out for the first time and I really liked it. So I just switched right over.”
Donnelly spent the next few years with the Durham Skating Club and the Clarington Skating Club. It was after he graduated from high school that the Oshawa native looked west for a chance to advance his career, moving to Calgary, home of one of two speed skating ovals in Canada.
Now living where the action is, Donnelly was able to start preparing earlier than normal for the season, rather than flying out to Calgary at the end of the summer.
“So, I think all that extra training and just building it up really helped with my development early in the season. I was just really happy with the result,” he says.
One of the country’s top up-and-coming speed skaters, Donnelly says rather than letting the hype get to his head, he’s using it as a source of motivation.
“It feels good but it’s definitely an incentive to push me harder so I can…live up to it.”