Fast showings
Athletes earn medals, set new provincial records at Atlantic events
P.E.I. speed skaters earned medals and set new records at the recent Atlantic Canadian short track and the Atlantic Cup long track championships.
In the short track championships, held in Dieppe, N.B., the 22-skater Island team grabbed seven medals, while also claiming five of the top six overall positions in the competition, which featured 166 skaters. At the long track championships held on the Emera Oval in Halifax, five P.E.I. skaters took to the start line, with a pair of Islanders bringing home medals.
Jacob Taylor, competing in his first off-Island meet, garnered the Island team’s lone gold medal on the short track in Dieppe, skating in division 11. Taylor picked up where he left off in November, when he also earned a gold medal at the Atlantic Cup meet in Charlottetown.
Taking home silver medals for P.E.I. from Dieppe were Charlottetown speedsters Peter McQuaid in division 1, Alex Rogers in division 6, Frankie Hancock in division 10 (female) and Brendan Reynard in division 10 (male).
McQuaid had his best finish in the 500 metre sprint distance where he took top honours, en route to his second-place overall finish in the meet. Rogers overcame falls in his 200- and 400-metre heats with a strong showing in the 1,500-metre distance, while also recording new personal-best times in all three of his timed distance finals.
Hancock’s silver medal was an impressive competitive debut after she took up the sport last month. Reynard, meanwhile, earned his third medal in as many tries this season, after winning gold in both Charlottetown and in Saint John, N.B., in November and December.
Andrew Binns in division 1 and Mia Stewart in division 5 earned bronze medals for the P.E.I. team.
William Lyons, Matt Kozma and Rob Binns also represented the Island in the top division at the short track event. Lyons and Kozma earned qualifying times to compete on the Quebec provincial circuit after both recorded new personal bests in the 500- and 1,000-metre distances. Binns set a new provincial record for masters men (ages 40 and older) in the 1,500-metre distance, bettering his own mark from 2015. The trio, along with McQuaid and Andrew Binns, gave P.E.I. five of the top six overall spots in the championship.
The meet featured competitors from 14 clubs across the Atlantic provinces as well as Nunavut.
The Island team in Halifax was the first to represent P.E.I. at the long track event since 2014 and was led by Carter Bruce, who took top spot in the 14-year-old boys’ group and by Andrew Binns, who grabbed third overall in the junior open category. Bruce won three of his four distances en route to the overall win for his group, while also establishing a pair of new provincial records in the 300- and 3,000-metre mass start events for junior-aged men.
Matthew McKenna, Dakota Jager and Addison Bruce each set new provincial records.
Jager’s competition was shortened due to injury, but not before she bettered her own provincial record for junior women in the 500-metre outdoor Olympic-style event. McKenna took ninth in the junior men’s open category, while also establishing new provincial outdoor Olympic-style records for the 16-17-year-old age group in the 1,500- and 3,000-metre distances. Addison Bruce set provincial outdoor records for juvenile boys in four events, including the 300-, 1,500 and 3,000-metre mass starts, as well as in the 500-metre Olympic style. Bruce finished eighth in the 13-year-old boys’ category.
For full competition results and for information on joining Speed Skate PEI programs, visit www.speedskatepei.com.