Vancouver View - Skaters Test New Oval, Torch Relay Wish List, Protests for Olympic Train

Canadian team members take their first laps on the ice at the Richmond Oval, speedskating venue for 2010. (Jeff Vinnick)Oval Applause

Speedskaters are offering their first reviews of the ice at the new Richmond Oval, one of the landmark venues built for the 2010 Winter Games.

Canadian speedskater Kristina Groves says the ice surface was better than expected, but that she especially liked the windows and lights. Groves took her first spin on the track last week, along with other Canadian team members, as the venue goes through a shakedown ahead of the first official competition next month.

“Structurally the building is spectacular, I don’t know if there is any other place in the world that has such a beautiful view, to have windows on eye level,” said the 31-year-old from Ottawa. “The roof is amazing, I kept telling everyone that it looked like stars in the sky, the lights just kind of glowed.”

Groves is the reigning 3000m world champion and won two silver medals at the 2006 Winter Olympics in the 1500m and team pursuit.

Official opening of the Richmond Oval is expected in December, but national team skaters are scheduled to return Oct. 18-20 for fall world cup trials.

Also last week in Vancouver, Canada’s short-track team held its three-day fall trials at the Pacific Coliseum, which hosts the first indoor test event for Vancouver 2010, an ISU world cup event, Oct. 24-26.Canadian short track speedskaters at the Pacific Coliseum. (B.Mackin)

“This week we’ve done a lot of testing with the ice,” said national team program director Yves Hamelin. “I think yesterday and today we have the type of ice required to be good for the world cup.”

Protests Jeer Spirit Train

Protestors managed to partially derail a Sept. 21 ceremony held to launch a 10-community tour of the Canadian Pacific Spirit Train. Locomotive and rolling stock carry the look of the Vancouver Olympics and are meant to promote the 2010 Games in a journey that ends in Montreal Oct. 18.

Almost 100 Olympic Resistance Network protesters descended for the send-off Sunday in the Vancouver suburb of Port Moody. For almost two hours the protestors banged on pots and pans, blasted air horns and used a public address system powered by a portable generator that carried the chants “Homes not Games” and “No Olympics on stolen native land.”

Welcome speeches by federal Olympics secretary James Moore and provincial Olympics minister Colin Hansen were canceled and musicians delayed or shortened their performances.

"It's unfortunate that there's competition for the ears, but there's also other stuff for kids and families (to see)," said VANOC vice president of communications Renee Smith-Valade.

"We'd rather that this hadn't have happened, but the reality is the protesters are here and for the most part are protesting peacefully," she said. Protestors at the Spirit Train event Sunday near Vancouver. (B.Mackin)

Port Moody Police arrested a male and female protester after an alleged assault of a camerman.