Inline skating continues to grow in new nations at great speed, and that is what the future of our discipline is, to strengthen the sport in all corners of the planet. Latvia is one of them, and their skating passes through its first phase of development in a country where ice skating is great prominence in all its forms and that certainly is a factor of much help to promote our sport in the summer months.

Latvia is small European country situated in the northeast of the continent along the Baltic Sea with 2,400,000 inhabitants where 30% of them live in Riga, the capital city. Estonia, Russia, Belarus and Lithuania are their neighbours’.

This year, Latvia will make its debut at the 2008 CIC World Speed Skating Championships in Gijon, next September 4th.

"It's great that the organization has invited us to a big event like the World Championships, I think it will be very interesting to see all professional skaters competing in the track ¨ said Helmuts Silovs -coach of Latvian Team-.

The Latvian Team will have four athletes in a debut that promises a lot. The junior Anna Bondare will be the only athlete to compete in track and road distances, while the remaining ones will only do the road and marathon races. Laurisa Bitenieks in senior and the juniors Otto Geste and Kaspars Klibikis completes the team that will mark a milestone in Gijon 2008.

"Being the coach of the Latvian National Team I can say that we will work hard to show that Latvians are really competitive skaters. The objectives are put on show that Latvia also has good skaters. Besides we will seek to break our national records ¨. Silovs added.

Also, plans for development of the sport are not only up to here but to a great future plan that includes the construction of the first banking track of 200 M and a new road circuit of 400 m, both in Riga. In addition, the team also will be participating in late September on the World Inline Cup in Berlin.