Hiller twins cutting ice at Olympic trials
Two Prince George Blizzard Speed Skating Club alumni – Carolina Hiller, 20, and her twin brother Nico – are in Calgary today for the start of the national team trials at the Olympic Oval.
Carolina is on the national development team and at the end of last season ranked fifth among Canadian women in the 500-metre and mass start events and eighth-ranked nationally in the 1,000m and 1,500m events. She was a three-time medalist at the Canada Winter Games in 2015 in Prince George.
In the Fall World Cup team trials in October in Calgary, Carolina finished eighth twice in the 500m distance and was ninth in the 1,000m.
Nico, a NextGen national team member, is considered the fifth-fastest Canadian male in the mass start race and is ranked 20th overall. At the Fall World Cup Selection meet he was 10th in the mass start and 21st in the 1,000m. At the Oval Invitational, he placed fourth in the 1,500 and was ninth and 12th in the 500m.
Both attend the University of Calgary. Nico is an urban studies/architecture student while Carolina is majoring in kinesiology.
National long track trials races are scheduled for Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Monday and Tuesday. Long track will be featured at the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea, Feb. 10-24.
• As much as most of us disliked all that frosty weather over the Christmas holidays the cold temperatures and relatively light snowfalls made it much easier to make ice at the Exhibition Park ice oval.
The volunteer maintenance crew that oversees the 400-metre track has the ice in pristine shape and conditions should be ideal for the Prince George Blizzard Speed Skating Club’s long track meet this Saturday.
The meet starts Saturday morning and continues until 6 p.m. A high temperature of 1 C is expected, after an overnight low of -6 C. Snow flurries are predicted.
The oval will be closed for a Blizzard club long track clinic Sunday until 12:45 p.m. Nonmembers are welcome to attend the practice as long as they are using speed skates of nordic track blades.