Team BC is all smiles at short track today

By Tyla Flexman, Team BC Mission Staff

Today was the last day of competition for short track speed skating at the 2015 Canada Winter Games. 

In the 3000m points, all of Team BC’s athletes finished in the top 30.  For the ladies, Alison Desmarais (Vanderhoof) skated a strong race finishing sixth overall.  Alyssa Skaalid (Enderby) finished 15th, Amy Cave (Port Moody) finished 20th, Maria Kim (Coquitlam) finished 22nd and Callie Swan (Prince George) finished 24th.  Desmarais, a local athlete, was pleased with the week and said that, “it was so nice to skate in front of a big crowd and full stands!”  For the men, Chris Poljer-So (New Westmisnter) captured Team BC’s best result, finishing 12th. Following him was Cormac Chui (Vancouver) in 13th, Anton Shekhter (Burnaby) in 20th, William Park (Seoul) in 22nd and Alex Chizawsky (Abbotsford) in 28th. 

In the 3000m relay the men skated to a fourth place finish.  Unfortunately, the women failed to qualify for the 3000m relay final. 

Overall, head coach Keith Gordon said, “I’m very proud of our skaters’ efforts.  The top teams here who dominated were national team level skaters and despite this we had four top 10 finishes and one skater finished seventh in total points.  We had a couple of damaged blades and a very unfortunate takedown but still skated above expectations.  I’m very pleased.”  Way to go Team BC!

See Canada Games live streaming at www.canadagamestv.ca and follow live updates on Twitter from @GoTeamBC with the hashtag #TBCSpeedskate.