As the only skater in the 22-women’s field who carried the tag as a home-towner, the only pressure Pareesa Jones felt to put on respectable showing came from within her own mind.
She knew she wouldn’t be part of the medal hunt at the two-day Canadian Junior Open short track speed skating championship, not with some of fastest 16-19-year-old skaters digging their blades into the Kin 1 ice.
It wasn’t medal moments she was after, but the chance to test her engine racing an elite group of athletes on home ice was a once-in-a-lifetime event that produced at least one surprising result for Jones.
On Sunday the 18-year-old Prince George Blizzard Speed Skating Club racer posted a second-place result in the 1,000m bottom final.
Jones fell off the pace about five laps into the nine-lap race and just when it looked like she might end up fifth in the five-skater race, with two laps to go three skaters hit the deck and crashed into the end mats, which immediately shot Jones into second place. With Mia Labelle of Quebec comfortably ahead, Jones kept her legs moving on a steady cruise to the finish.
“I knew it was going to be a hard race and I stayed with them for a little bit and then that crash took them out and I was able to go ahead and it was great,” said Jones, a UNBC student and aspiring math teacher.
“It was a good thing I wasn’t with them at that moment. This whole weekend was amazing. I knew it was going to be the hardest thing I ever did and it was just amazing to be with all these fast people, meet new people and compete against all these provinces.”
While her final 1,000 race will stand out as a highlight, her high-water mark came at the end of the 500 m event on Saturday. Jones fell in the preliminaries, made some improvements in her second race and in the third go-round put down her most satisfying race of the weekend.
“I just hammered on all the things I was told to focus on,” said Jones. “It was a very good technical race.
“I learned a lot of tactics, like pulling the passes, staying in the train, we don’t really have those opportunities here to train tactics.”
Jones said she might attend a couple regional races in Calgary to keep her in race mode for her next big event, the BC short track provincial championships March 8-9 in Prince George.
Jones went on to win a silver medal in the women’s 3,000 m relay, teaming up with Labelle, Calla Haaheim, Maeva Provencher to complete the race in 4:53.791.
Lea Boucher, Gabrielle Oetemo, Justine Joly and Julianne Lazarri won gold (4:51.791) and bronze went to Kierana Laut, Zitlalli Gravel, Rachael Butt and Rebecca Mersier (4:57.170).
In the men’ relay, Charles Fournier, Andy Mihala, Kai Barnnett and Gabriel Padbury won gold (4:12.949); Justin Bessette, Emile Fortin, Xavier-Mathis Bolf and Justin Lacasse took silver (4:13.073) and Thomas Brault, Maxime Pigeon, Charles-Etienne Morin and Nigel Emblin captured bronze (4:13.073).
