In their Canada Winter Games debut, Callie Swan of Prince George and Alison Desmarais of Vanderhoof turned home ice advantage Sunday into a berth in Sunday's women's short track speed skating 1,500-metre B-final.
As impressive as that was to make it into the top-13 in the nation, it was probably a good thing the two local skaters were not up with the B-final leaders when they made their final strides in the bell lap. It helped Swan and Desmarais avoid a train wreck at Lakewood Dental Arena.
With one lap left in the 13 1/2 lap race, Quebec skater Marie -Soleil Fallu-Dion appeared poised to win the B-final when she got caught up in the skate of Alyssa Seymour of New Brunswick. Both lost their balance and went into a high-speed slide into the padding on the end boards. Seymour eventually skated off under her own power but Fallu-Dion had to be stretchered off the ice with injuries to her leg and ribcage.
Because no skater had crossed the finish when the race was stopped by the officials, the remaining skaters lined and started the race again from the start. Four laps into the restart, the whistle blew when an official noticed all the available medical attendants had left sight of the ice surface to attend to the two injured skaters. That meant one more restart and New Brunswick skaters Courtney Sarault, Heidi Evans and Sarah Gilbert went on to finish 1-2-3 respectively, with Desmarais fourth and Swan fifth.
"It was a great day," said the 16-year-old Swan, a member of the Prince George Blizzard Speed Skating Club. " I kind of wanted to be in the B-final but did not expect that would be. I was definitely nervous going in because they are such fast people. It was challenging when we had the restart. Luckily they were OK but we had to start the race again and I was getting a bit annoyed.
"I was a little hard to get over but Alison was with me and we both kind of pumped each other up again."
Desmarais, 17, skates for the Nechako Lakes Speed Skating Club and she drew a crowd from Vanderhoof. The gathering of about 900 spectators at Kin 1 was the largest crowd for short tack in the city's history. There were so many people packing the stands and aisles, event staff were forced to turn spectators away. Their enthusiasm for the races was not lost on Swan.
"That was amazing, I've never raced in front of such a big crowd," said Swan. "When we walked out we to wave to all the B.C. people and go up to the line, that was the coolest feeling ever. It just makes you feel you want to represent them well and make them proud and it honestly helps."
In other local results, Madison Pilling, a UNBC student and Blizzard club member from Fort Simpson, N.W.T., finished fifth in the women's C-final
