Sean McAnuff and Liam O’Brien duked it out with best skaters in the world as they got their campaign for Milano Cortina under way at the first ISU Short Track World Tour event of the season in Montreal, Canada.
The opening day saw qualification races in the 500 and 1500 metre distances. O’Brien lined up in Heat 2 of the 500 metre preliminaries and when the gun went off, he got jostled causing him to lose momentum. He was never in the hunt to advance after that and came home in fourth place with a time of 42.930. McAnuff appeared in Heat 7 and by contrast was in the mix throughout his race. After making a nice pass to move up from third to second on the penultimate lap, he did not quite have enough to claim an automatic spot in the next round. Unfortunately, his second-place time of 42.830 was not enough to progress.
O’Brien found himself drawn again in Heat 2 of the 1500 metre heats. Always in contention he bided his time and made his move just before the penultimate lap to move into second. He finished in second with a time of 2:17.324 which took him to the quarterfinals as the fastest non-automatic qualifier. McAnuff was back out on the ice in Heat 10. While he maintained contact throughout the race, a sudden injection of pace on the third last lap saw him drop back and cross the line in fifth place in 2:27.530 ending his participation in the day’s races. O’Brien returned in Heat 4 of the 1500 metre quarterfinals. In a hard-fought race, he just could not get into his groove and placed sixth albeit with a slightly swifter time of 2:17.170 than what he recorded in the previous round.
All that remained after a long day of racing were the 500 metre repechage heats. In Heat 3, McAnuff was fourth after the opening corner and was playing catch up throughout the race. He finished in third place with a time of 43.137. O’Brien rounded out his opening salvo of races in Heat 12. A few moments of contact on the opening lap sapped his speed from which it proved difficult to recover. He came fourth in a time of 45.949.
The second day of qualification consisted of just the 1000 metres. In Heat 3 of the preliminaries O’Brien contested the lead at the start of his race, but got bumped at the start of lap four and struggled to recover his position. He wound up in fifth place in a time of 1:28.853. McAnuff drew Heat 8 and was there or thereabouts until two laps to go when he got nudged as he was attempting to move into second. He finished in fourth with a time of 1:30.549.
The Wolfhounds returned later in the day for the repechage heats. McAnuff was involved in a thrilling Heat 9 maintaining contact with leaders. He managed to side step a crash on the final lap that took out a number of his competitors and crossed the line in second. His time of 1:28.076 was good enough to see him advance to the 1000 metre repechage quarterfinals two days later. Immediately after in Heat 10 O’Brien was holding his own. However, as he went into the lead with five laps to go he was bounced off course and ultimately finished third with a time of 1:32.718.
On the third day of the event the Wolfhounds were focused on the 1500 metre repechage quarterfinals. Another Heat 2 draw for O’Brien and he took the race out at a leisurely pace. He fronted the affair for a number of laps before he was passed by others in the field. He came home in a time of 2:29.692 for fifth place. McAnuff was in the thick of things throughout Heat 9. However, he did not have enough on the final lap and wound up in sixth with a time of 2:24.977.
McAnuff was the last Wolfhound standing on the fourth day of competition taking on the 1000 repechage quarterfinals in Heat 2. He wrapped up the season opener for Team Ireland with a fifth place and a time of 1:28.615.
The ISU Short Track World Tour remains in Montreal, Canada for the second leg from 16-19 October.
