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Calgarian rolls to world mark

by Todd Kimberley
Calgary Herald

Meaghan Buisson is moving over to blades, but she's still hell on wheels.

Among other accomplishments this weekend at the Canadian Inline Speed Skating Championships in Montreal, Buisson set a world record.

The Saskatoon native and Calgary resident skated the women's solo marathon in one hour, 18 minutes, 15.68 seconds. The former world record of 1:28:53 had been set by American Kimberly Ames at Portland, Ore., in 2002.

"My favorite skate back home was Saskatoon to Aberdeen, straight into a headwind, jumping roadkill," joked Buisson from Montreal on Saturday. "My strength as an inliner always was just going hard, all-out, in time trials. So we looked at the record, looked at the time, and I said: 'I can beat that.'"

Buisson has also rewritten national records in winning the 300-, 500-, and 1,000-metre time trials and 10K points races in Montreal.

Of particularly pride? Beating Cindy Klassen's seven-year-old national mark of 29.1 seconds in the 300 with a 28.4, and becoming the first Canadian woman to clock a sub-29-second finish.

Buisson, 26, spent two summers privateering on the inline speed skating World Cup circuit in Europe, winning the Lille French Inline Cup in 2004, but was recruited last year for the Canadian long-track speed skating team as part of the Own the Podium program leading up toe the 2010 Winter Olympics at Vancouver/Whistler.

"Inline is all pack racing - 200 girls all going 40-plus kilometres an hour. A lot of sprints, a lot of attacks. Very dynamic," she said.

"But inline isn't a funded, carded sport in Canada. There's very little recognition. I've had four concussions and a cranial fracture. Here's an opportunity - let's see what happens."

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