Two weeks from today, the slate is wiped clean for short track speed skaters trying to qualify for the Canada Winter Games.
By the end of that weekend, the top five females and top five males who make up Team B.C. will know they've earned a return trip to Prince George to compete in the Games' short track events, Feb. 12-20.
Local flavour is guaranteed at the two-day provincial team selection meet, Nov. 1-2. Prince George Blizzard Speed Skating Club members Carolina Hiller, Nico Hiller and Callie Swan, all of Prince George, as well as Alison Desmarais of Vanderhoof and Madison Pilling of Fort Simpson, N.W.T., who skate with the Blizzard, are already in the mix as qualifiers.
Nico Hiller, 17, has a tough choice on his hands, whether to compete in short track or long track at the Games. Both events are scheduled for the first week of the Games and each Games athlete is limited to participation in just one sport. Hiller is coming off an outstanding season in long track, highlighted by a 12th-place finish in the 3,000-metre event at a Canada Cup race in Calgary.
"Unfortunately with Speed Skating Canada, especially at the level of the Hillers, they don't recognize that these athletes are still trying to decide between long track and short track and they have significant competitions for both short track and long track at the same time, which forces them to choose," said Blizzard club coach Corrine Masich.
"That's why Nico is leaning towards long track, because he really likes it, and if the competition schedule forces him to choose, he'll pick long track."
The Blizzard club's top skaters are being coached by Adam Ingle, Speed Skating BC's coach of the year in 2013-14.
The selection event is three meets rolled into one. While the older club athletes compete for provincial team spots in the selection meet, club skaters and those who rank 17th or lower after the selection qualifying round will compete in the Central Interior Challenge. The younger skaters will compete for medals in the Nanguz Cup, named after the 2015 Canada Games mascot.
On Tuesday at a Blizzard club time trial at Lakewood Dental Arena (also known as Kin 1), Morgon Bennison of Fort St. James and Fort St. John skater Colton Johnson met the 50-second standard for the selection meet by one-thousandth of a second in the 50-metre event. Both started the time trial having already achieved qualifying times.
Sam Dalla Lana and Morgan AuCoin of Prince George, Matthew Ebert of Vanderhoof and Erin Stickle of Fort St. John are close in their selection meet qualifying times and will get another chance to nail down a spot next weekend, either at the Stuart Lake Inter Club meet in Fort St. James or the Langley Longblades meet in Langley.
The Blizzard will be the host club for the B.C. long track championships, Jan. 17-18, which is the qualifying meet for the Canadian age group championships in Saskatoon in February.
Vanderhoof will host the provincial short track championships, March 7-8, the qualifier for the Western Canadian finals in Selkirk, Man., March 21-22.
Blizzard club membership, which includes the masters program, has reached 60 skaters, up significantly from last year.
"We've had a surge of new members, which is typical after an Olympic year, but I really think the[media] coverage we had at our test event in March helped," said Masich.
