Howe and Scott Canadian long track junior champions

Alberta’s Connor Howe and Manitoba’s Alexa Scott won the Canadian long track speed skating championship last weekend in Calgary.

By Jackob Savard
Photo: Bill Christ

To crown the overall ranking champions, every skater competed on 500m, 1000m, 1500m and in the long distances (3000m for the ladies and 5000m for the men).

Howe will lead the Canadian squad

Calgarian speed skater Connor Howe was racing in the Canada cup for a chance to qualify for the senior world championships but his times were also counting for the junior championships. With his fast times, he was the best junior skater on three of the four events to seal the deal and win the overall Canadian junior champion title. He established a new canadian junior record of 1:44.16 on 1500m. Howe will compete in his third World junior championships in career. Seventeen-year-old skater from Quebec Hubert Marcotte had a solid weekend of racing and will most likely represent Canada at the World junior championships as he finished 2nd in the overall ranking. He collected a podium on every distances of the weekend. Alberta’s Jack Deibert took the 3rd place in the overall ranking thanks to a strong silver medal performance on 5000m.

Alexa Scott perfect

Manitoba’s Alexa Scott won every distances of the ladies’ competition with a good gap and will represent Canada for the second time at the World junior championships. Her closest rivals were Quebec's skaters Gabrielle Jelonek and Ophélie Juneau who took the 2nd and 3rd place of the overall ranking. Jelonek, who took part in last year’s World junior championships got three silver medals and a bronze medal. Juneau got three 3rd place and a fourth place. We’ll probably see them race in Baselga di Piné, Italy!

The overall ranking winners had an automatic spot on the World junior championships team and at least three skaters of each gender will be chosen by Speed skating Canada to join them based on their performance at the Canadian junior championships. Speed skating Canada will confirm their official junior team in the next few weeks.

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