Only a few days remain till the start of the 2008 CIC World Speed Skating Championships in the touristic coastal city of Gijon where more than 500 athletes will be primary to the biggest contest of our discipline. For that reason many teams are completing their travel details, and are arranging to fly to the Spanish city where 48 gold medals will be disputed.
Venezuela is one of the big surprises on the international skating scene.

The South American country became a leading character when, in Barqusimeto 2003, they won two surprise gold medals. From there, the future of speed skating in Venezuela, began to shine at an international level gathering both numbers and a skating level to make the speed skating in Venezuela a country to contend with.

Since November 2006, the Venezuelan Federation took Chilean, Francisco Fuentes on board and tested his abilities to take their team to another level. He took the control of the Venezuelan Team and from that date he planned a long term project to govern the high performance activities to becoming one of the most successful sports in the whole country.

Last year, Javier Oyalbis and Juan Jardines were the big eye-openers at the Pan American Games in Rio de Janeiro where they won two silver medals beating to the favorite athletes. This year, the team won the South American Championships held in San Juan de los Morros beating strong powers as Argentina and Chile showing great improvements in the Woman’s categories.

Now, just few days remain to the Gijón 2008 odyssey where the 13 athletes will carry the Venezuelan flag and they will try to put it at the top of the world.

The team will fly next Wednesday at afternoon from Maiquetia International Airport in Caracas to arrive one day later at Gijon where they will go immediately to visit the world’s venues.

The sprinter Juan Jardine already demonstrated this year that is ready for great things and he wants to improve his third place got last year in Cali at the time trial race. In long distances, Daniel Alvarez is having a great season and he won every race that he raced in the South American region: also, Jose Bastidas was solid at the World Inline Cup races. Alfredo Leon and Ronald Parra complete a powerful team that has many chances to fight for a place on the podium.

In the ladies division, the Venezuela speed skating showed its major growth. Gladian Cabrera was the great surprise at the South American Championships with double gold medals at the time trials race surpassing all the big favorites.

The junior talent Enrique Flores is other big hope to shine in Spain. He won the America’s Cup in Colombia and destroyed everybody at the South American Championships in short and long distances.

"Since we assumed the federation we considered increasing the international results of our teams to measure our management process. For that reason we will look to improve on our last major competition in Cali where we won two bronze medals" said Fabian Arcila, Venezuelan Roller Sports Federation’s President.