Archive for category: Speed Skating

Ryan McAnuff has finished 35th overall at the ISU World Short Track Speed Skating Championships in Montreal, Canada this weekend.

McAnuff opened his competition on the first day with the heats and preliminaries of his three distances. In Heat 5 of the 1500 metres, he clocked a time of 2:22.170 to finish fifth. The 500 metres saw him come third in Heat 7 in a time of 43.228. His final race on the opening session was the 1000 metres and he finished fourth in Heat 2 with a time of 1:32.011.

On the second day of competition, McAnuff appeared in two ranking finals. Heat 3 of the 1500 metres was a closely fought affair and he ended up in fourth place in a time of 2:34.988. He also finished fourth in the 500 metres in Heat 6 with a time of 44.205.

The final race of the championships for McAnuff was the 1000 metres ranking final on the third day of action. He closed out his campaign in a time of 1:30.650 in Heat 3 in which he placed second.

McAnuff improved on his 36th place finish at last year’s World to end up 35th overall at this year’s event. This means that he will wear the number 35 on his helmet at his races next season.

“I am happy that I was able to improve on my placing from last year,” McAnuff said. “I am looking forward to finishing even stronger next season.”

Irish speed skater Tara Donoghue competed this weekend at the ISU Junior World Cup Speed Skating in Innsbruck, Austria and set new Irish records in three of her races.

On the first day of competition, Donoghue skated in Pair 3 of the 1,000 metres and laid down a new Irish record of 1:29.22 for the distance. She finished in 31st place.

Her second race of Day 1 was the 3,000 metres for which she was also drawn in Pair 3. She posted a time of 4:50.59 which was another Irish record and good enough for 17th place overall.

Donoghue had three races on Day 2. First up was the 500 metres which saw her start in Pair 6. She set yet another Irish record of 44.86 which put her in 32nd.

In the 1,500 metres, she recorded a time of 2;16.67 to finish in 27th place overall.

Her final race was the mass start where she raced against 24 other skaters and came 12th in a time of 5:58.75.

Detailed results for the event are available here.

Irish short track speed skater Sean McAnuff (20) has finished in 28th place overall on his debut at the European Short Track Speed Skating Championships in Dresden, Germany.

McAnuff raced six times over the course of the three days of the championships inside the EnergieVerbund Arena. On Day One, he was in Heat 4 of the 1500 metres and came fourth in a time of 2:22.530. He also came fourth in Heat 3 of the 1500 metres ranking final the following day with a time of 2:23.560 to finish 27th for the distance.

The 500 metres saw him come fourth in his opening heat for that event in a time of 43.507. He won Heat 3 in the ranking finals with a time of 43.540 which put him in 33rd place out of all the skaters in the event.

The final discipline for McAnuff was the 1000 metres and he came third in Heat 7 with a time of 1:35.193. In Heat 4 of the 1000 metres ranking final, he took another first in a time of 1:34.319 leaving him in 27th place.

His overall ranking well inside the Top 32 means that he has secured two spots for Ireland in the men’s category at the 2019 European Short Track Speed Skating Championships which will be held in Dordrecht, Netherlands.

Tara Donoghue will make history for Ireland tomorrow when she races at the International Skating Union (ISU) Junior World Cup in Inzell, Germany.

The Irish national team member will make history as the first athlete to represent Ireland in an ISU speed skating event. She will also be the first female speed skater to compete for her country.

Donoghue will be one of 80 female skaters from 21 nations participating in the competition in Germany. Over the course of two days she will participate in the 500 metres, 1500 metres, 3000 metres and mass start events.

The ISU Junior World Cup Speed Skating will be staged over three legs this winter. After Inzell (25-26 November), Innsbruck, Austria will play host for the second stage on 27-28 January with the final being held in Salt Lake City, USA, on 2-4 March.

The results of this weekend’s Junior World Cup will be available here.

After a month’s hiatus, Irish short track speed skaters Ryan McAnuff (22) and Sean McAnuff (20) are back on the Audi International Skating Union (ISU) World Cup Short Track Speed Skating circuit this week in the qualification process to secure berths for Ireland at the 2018 Olympic Winter Games in PyeongChang, Republic of Korea.

The brothers began their Olympic qualifying campaign late September in Budapest, Hungary and raced the following week in Dordrecht, Netherlands. November sees them take on back-to-back World Cups in Asia – the first of which is in Shanghai, China (9-12 November).  They will race against athletes from 40 countries over three disciplines – 500 metres, 1000 metres and 1500 metres. The final World Cup meet will be in Seoul, Republic of Korea (16-19 November). Skaters will earn points for each distance they race at the four World Cups with their three best results counting towards their qualification ranking. The top ranked 32 skaters in the 500 and 1000 metres and 36 skaters in the 1500 metres will book their places in PyeongChang. A maximum total of 60 skaters across all distances will qualify for the Olympics.

In 2016, the brothers became the first Irish short track speed skaters to compete on the international circuit. Ryan represented Ireland at the 2017 European Championships in Italy and the 2017 World Championships in the Netherlands, while Sean flew the tricolour at the 2017 Junior World Championships in Austria all for the first time. During the summer of 2017, they moved from Canada to the Netherlands to train full-time with the Dutch national team.

You can follow the McAnuffs’ progress in China via the Ice Skating Association of Ireland Facebook and Twitter accounts and, on 11 and 12 November, via the ISU Skating Channel.