Irish Wolfhound Complete Montreal World Tour Double Header
Sean McAnuff (Co. Antrim) and Liam O’Brien (Co. Cavan) have rounded out the second of two ISU Short Track World Tour events in Montreal, Canada this weekend.
On the opening day of the competition, the Irish Wolfhounds took on the 500 and 1500 metre distances. In Heat 8 of the 500 metre preliminaries O’Brien was drawn in starting position three and maintained third place from the gun to the line in a time of 42.841. Next up was McAnuff in Heat 9 who found himself in what turned out to be the fastest winning time of the preliminaries. He came home in 42.791 for second place.
In Heat 5 of the 1500 metre heats O’Brien took the lead with seven laps to go and was in contention the whole way through until the final lap where he was pipped into third in a time of 2:24.167. Immediately after in Heat 6 McAnuff kept himself in touch with the lead until he got dropped with two laps to go. He finished in sixth place with a time of 2:24.467.
The Irish Wolfhounds were back for the 500 metre repechage heats at the end of Day One. McAnuff appeared in Heat 4 and was racing well until the penultimate lap when a skater in front of him crashed out almost taking McAnuff with him and causing him to lose speed. He still managed to come second in a time of 42.311 which was unfortunately not enough to take him any further. In Heat 9 O’Brien slotted into fourth on the opening lap and held that position all the way to the end with a time of 42.498.
The second day of this World Tour event focused on the 1000 metres. McAnuff raced in Heat 3 of the preliminaries and kept in contact with the leader from the start until the final lap before he had to settle for second place in a time of 1:27.613. In Heat 4 O’Brien began to make moves with two laps to go and just missed out on making the top two as he placed third with a time of 1:34.991.
Both Irish Wolfhounds were drawn in Heat 1 of the 1000 metre repechage heats. McAnuff and O’Brien kept things in close quarters at the start of the race before both found they did not have the pace to end up in the top spots. McAnuff was third in a time of 1:28.549 with O’Brien fourth in 1:29.596.
The final throw of the dice for Team Ireland was the 1500 metre repechage quarterfinals. McAnuff lined up in Heat 5 in what proved to be a thrilling race with two skaters crashing out midway. McAnuff dropped off on the penultimate lap and finished fourth with a time of 2:25.797. In Heat 8 O’Brien darted to the front with seven laps to go and was in pole position when contact with another skater bumped him off course slightly. He never recovered and wound up in fifth place in a time of 2:30.025.
The Irish Wolfhounds will next compete at third ISU Short Track World Tour event in Gdansk, Poland (20-23 November).
