CHARLOTTETOWN, P.E.I. - Speed Skate P.E.I. named its seven-member short-track speedskating team on Friday set to compete at the 2019 Canada Winter Games Feb.15-March 3 in Red Deer, Alta.
The team includes Jenna Larter, 16, of Brookfield, Mia Stewart, 16, and Andrew Binns, 16, of Stratford, William Lyons, 16, of Rock Barra, and Kyle Connell, 16, Peter McQuaid, 19 and Thomas McQuaid, 17, all of Charlottetown.
The head coach is Sarah Taylor, who coached the squad in 2015, while Rob Binns is the manager.
“Our team has trained extremely hard over the past several years and they’ve reached new heights as a group. They have more racing experience on the very competitive Quebec circuit and in national level competitions than our P.E.I. skaters have previously had. Several of them have medaled at the Canada East short track championships in the past couple of years, which was another first for us,” Taylor said. “We’re going to keep training hard and we’ll be ready to put our best performances forward when we get to Red Deer. The team is excited to compete and we’re looking forward to seeing the results of their hard work.”
The skaters will each participate in four individual events, including the 500 metre, 1,000 and 1,500-metre distances. The 3,000 metre points race, first added to the Canada Winter Games competition format in 2015, returns in 2019. P.E.I. will also have a male team in the 3,000 metre relay.
The team’s events run Feb. 17-22.
Speed Skate P.E.I. will announce its long track team later this month.
More at www.speedskatepei.com.
