Three members of the Ridge Meadows Racers speedskating team are heading to the Canadian nationals age-class competition in Montreal after a strong showing at the RUFast speeedskating competition at Calgary’s Olympic Oval last weekend.
Thomas McLennan, William McLennan and Yijun Lee all qualified for the national event on the strength of their efforts last weekend combined with points from the Oktoberfest competition, also held in Calgary earlier this season.
Thomas McLennan continued his strong showing this year with a bronze place finish in Division 1, knocking three seconds off his 1,500-metre time and finishing less than half a second off first. Lee posted a two-second personal best to grab the silver medal in Division 3 to qualify for Montreal.
William McLennan also qualified for nationals in Division 1 posting an impressive 44.9 personal best in the 500-metre. He was edged out in overall points by teammate Steven Timotius who had one of his strongest showings of the year posting a 45.1 personal best 500-metre and finishing 10 spots above his ranking.
Meanwhile, T2T skaters Justin Cross and Annie Russell were battling at the B.C. short track championships in Port Coquitlam co over the weekend. Cross put in a solid performance to take the iron medal for fourth spot and secure a spot on B.C.’s squad for the Canada West competition in Kelowna later this month. Russell also grabbed fourth will join Cross on the B.C. team that will face skaters from five other western provinces and territories March 26 and 27.