Irvine cements Olympic berth in 1,000m
Kaylin Irvine won’t be contesting any surfing championships any time soon. In fact, it almost derailed her 2018 Olympic dream.
Irvine suffered a couple of concussions surfing last year, the first at the end of the season and the second, a month later while riding the waves in Costa Rica.
“My surf board smoked me in the head,” recalled a sheepish Irvine, who nonetheless recovered from her back-to-back head injuries to earn a spot on Canada’s long track speedskating team headed to PyeongChang, South Korea.
Irvine, who hails from Calgary, finished second to Heather McLean in the women’s 1,000m event Monday at the Canadian single distance championships and Olympic trials. Both had already met the Canadian standard and thus needed a podium result to cement a spot on the Olympic team. McLean earned her spot last week when she finished second in the 500m. Irvine was third in that race and just shy of qualification.
But the 1:14.43 she posted in the 1,000m at the most recent World Cup stop in Salt Lake City gave her confidence heading into Monday’s qualifying race over that distance.
“Despite not qualifying that day, that was still my fastest time,” said the 27-year-old, who clocked 1:15.37 on Monday. “Going into this one, I had the time from my last World Cup where I nailed the race. That was my celebration for the Olympics, to be honest.”
These will be Irvine’s second Games after having competed at the 2014 Games in Sochi.
“At the beginning of the summer, it was an almost out-of-reach goal for me, coming off that injury,” she conceded. “Honestly, just to race that time standard. I’m so proud of that already. Going into these Olympics, I want to do better than I have before and top 10 would be amazing.”
McLean posted a time of 1:14.50, just under the qualifying standard that she, too, had already achieved.
“It was the best execution of the season as far as race plan goes,” said the Winnipeg resident. “It’s been awhile since I’ve hit a couple of points in a race that I’m confident with. I was a little disappointed after my 500, so to come back with this 1,000 and finish strong, I couldn’t ask for a better race.”
In the men’s 1000m, Vincent De Haitre bettered the Canadian qualifying standard with a time of 1:07.67. He had done that earlier last week in the 1,500m.
“I was little nervous on the start line, knowing that my pair (Laurent Dubreuil) was going to be several tenths ahead of me by 200 metres, so that alone was a little stressful, but I did remember I had the exact same lane and the exact same pair four years ago at the last Olympic trials and I remembered that I won that one, so it was a little less stressful,” said the 23-year-old De Haitre.
“This ice is deceiving. In warmup, it felt really good. Then you get out to race and for some reason it’s not quite there anymore. It’s still great ice and it still feels good under your feet. It feels like the ice in Korea and that’s all that’s important.”
Second spot was taken by Alexandre St-Jean, in a time of 1:08.52.
“I was really stressed out,” said the 24-year-old from Quebec City. “All the guys who were challenging me were already qualified in other distances, so the pressure was considerably higher on me. Considering all the pressure, I’m incredibly happy with my second place.”