Personal bests for Team BC in the 500m short track
By Tyla Flexman, Team BC Mission Staff
The first round of heats today saw two Team BC ladies qualify for the quarterfinals. Alyssa Skaalid (Enderby) also skated a personal best and benefitted from disqualifications to find herself in the quarter and semifinal rounds. Skaalid would finish eighth overall. Team BC’s best performance can be credited to Alison Desmarais (Vanderhoof), who looked confident and smooth on the ice. “I was happy with my performance today, mostly because I felt strong throughout the entire day” said Desmarais. Her consistent strength was evident as she also skated a personal best, resulting in a sixth place overall finish.
Notable finishes were Maria Kim (Coquitlam), finishing 19th overall with a personal best and Amy Cave (Port Moody), finishing 18th. Unfortunately, local athlete, Callie Swan (Prince George), did not qualify for the quarterfinals due to an unfortunate broken skate blade at the start of her heat, positioning her 31st overall.
Similar to the girls, the Team BC boys had two athletes qualify for the quarter finals with William Park (Soeul) and Anton Shekhter (Burnaby) putting forward strong heat performances. Chris Poljer-So (New Westminster) did not manage to qualify despite a very strong skate that included two passes that his coach later said were some of his career bests.
Team BC’s best performance came from Shekhter finishing 13th overall and followed closely by Park in 15th. Pojer-So would finish 17th, Alex Chizawsky (Abbotsford) in 30th, and Cormac Chui (Vancouver) in and 48th.
When asked for his thoughts on the day, head coach Keith Gordon was quick to say, “I was extremely happy with our skater’s performances, although we had some ups and downs and bad fortune. I was very pleased with the effort given by our entire team. All our skaters really gave it their all and made Team BC proud.” With four personal bests and determination on their faces, they certainly did.
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