McAnuff Rounds Out Season With Highest Worlds Placement
Sean McAnuff (28) has concluded his fourth appearance at the ISU Short Track Speed Skating World Championships this weekend in Montreal, Canada with his best ever finish for an individual distance.
McAnuff got things under way on Friday with the qualifications rounds. In the 1500 metres quarterfinals, he drew Heat 5 and finished in seventh place with a time of 2:26.406. Next up were the 500 metres preliminaries and he raced in Heat 12. He did not quite have enough pace in the end and had to settle for fourth in a time of 42.362. Last for the opening day of racing were the 1000 metres preliminaries. In Heat 3, McAnuff was in the lead with three laps remaining, but he got squeezed out by the field over the rest of the race and dropped to fifth with a time of 1:30.898.
Saturday saw McAnuff face into repechage rounds over two distances. He commenced in Heat 1 of the 1500 metres repechage quarterfinals and posted his second fastest time of the season with a 2:24.067 clocking to finish fourth. He raced very positively in Heat 6 of the 500 metres repechage quarterfinals to place third in a season best time of 42.303.
McAnuff’s final day of racing in the 1000 metres repechage session was eventful to say the least. He got his tactics spot on in Heat 5 of the repechage quarterfinals and was installed in second place going into the final corner when another athlete impeded him causing a crash. McAnuff was advanced to the repechage semifinals. With five laps to go in Heat 2, calamity struck when he tripped and fell. Nevertheless he managed to get up and cross the line in second place. He came 23rd in the distance which is the highest he has ever ranked at Worlds.
