An inline speed skating clinic with Elton De Souza in the works in Montreal

Earlier this week, Pierre Laurent, coach at the Canadian inline speed skating club VRL de Laval, shared on Facebook that he was working on organising an inline clinic with non other than 2017 World games champion Elton De Souza.

By Carl Savard

Photos by Thomas Wendt

Living in Canada since 2014, Pierre Laurent’s career as a junior athlete in Europe is pretty impressive. He has been part of the French national junior team from 2004 to 2010 alongside well known active champions such as Elton De Souza and Nolan Beddiaf. During this period, he was crowned national champion in France 10 times on sprint distances. He also won the European championships on 200m in 2008 and that same year finished fourth, just behind Belgium’s Bart Swings, on 1000m. He started coaching in 2011 at the Grenoble club and continued to share his passion and help younger skaters developed when he arrived in Canada and joined the VRL club. This club and its president Pascal Dubreuil are cornerstones of the inline scene in Canada. Their next event will be held on July 7, 2018 when skaters will battle at the Laval Marathon.

For Passion/Speed/Skating, the possible visit of Elton De Souza in Canada becomes one of the most important inline news this season, especially with the  announcement earlier this spring that the organizers of the 24 Roller Montreal had to cancel the 2018 event. Pierre Laurent seemed happy that we wanted to know more about this event: "Elton and I have been friends for a long time. With Nolan Beddiaf, we climbed the steps of the sport together and were teammates in Team France as juniors. I’ve been thinking about organising this clinic with Elton for a while because I know he likes to do them and he lives and breath inline speed skating, but because of schedules and how active he is on the international circuit it never seemed possible. He has an opening this season in July and I think we can do it this time around.” De Souza is one of the big names in the sport. The 27 years old skater won many French and European championships. He also won medals at the World championships and was crowned 2017 World games champion on the track elimination race last season. De Souza coming to Montreal could give the chance to many passionate skaters from Eastern Canada and New England to acquire new techniques and tips from an active star of the sport.

To make sure that the event is viable and that he can start working on a schedule and a budget, Pierre Laurent is presently sounding skaters’ interests for the clinic. You are invited to answer a short survey right HERE to help make this project a reality. To make sure the word is spread to everyone who might be interested in this event, make sure to share this article.

UPDATE July 6th Click HERE to register for the clinic!
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