We've all read and heard about how Wren Acorn is making her charge against the elite junior speedskaters of the country.
But there's another member of the Acorn clan who's beginning to make some noise and he announced his intentions last weekend in Grande Prairie, Alta.
Sage Acorn, Wren's younger brother, is the best of the bunch in the T2T (Train-to-Train) 12 boys division after winning the overall title at the Canada West Short Track Championships on Sunday. Acorn earned 3,298 points from his races over the course of the weekend to top the standings, 150 points better than the runner-up from B.C.; each race a skater competed in came with a set number of points awarded depending on where a skater finished in each one.
photo courtesy of Kerry Egan
Acorn said it was a tiring weekend but he managed to pull through.
“You need to have the determination to do it and I was lucky,” he said.
Lucky is one way to describe Acorn's weekend as he had several close calls in his races.
One of his lucky bounces came in the 400-metre heats, where only the winner of each one advanced to the final, 1+0 as it's known as in speedskating parlance. Acorn ended up second in his heat but thanks to some luck, he advanced on to the big race.
“The winner of the race was penalized and so I was advanced to the final,” he said.
He would eventually go on to finish third in the final, earning 666 points toward his total.
Acorn's next stroke of luck came in the 1,500-metre event. In the first running of the race, he fell and ended up behind the pack. However, the race was restarted due to a disqualification and because of it, he was able to dust himself off and win the new race, earning 1,000 points.
The 2,000-metre points race, though, was where Acorn's stamina would really be tested.
The points race involves every skater in the division on the ice at the same time with points handed out to skaters based on where they're placed at certain laps.
The first version of the race was halted due to a crash on lap 19 involving several skaters and under the rules, the officials stopped the race for safety reasons and ordered it to be restarted.
Race no. 2 was all fine, or so it was thought, but there was an issue with the timing and the results and because of that, the results from race no. 2 were thrown out, meaning a third race.
Race no. 3 ended up being the one which counted – eventually – and Acorn ended up coming in second overall, netting him 816 points.
Kerry Egan, Acorn's mother and the team's coach for the weekend, said her son showed great resiliency to do nearly three full 2,000-metre races.
“He had the capacity to re-focus and do it all again each time,” she said. “Some skaters would get rattled because of it all and they can't perform but he was able to draw on it and do it again every time.”
Acorn also raced in the 200-metre pursuit race, where he was second, earning another 816 points for his grand total of 3,298.
“I thought about winning but I just wanted to go and try my best,” said Acorn. “I had a lot of fun.”
Big sister was also in Grande Prairie providing some coaching and assistance to the team, he added.
“She's a big inspiration for me to do well,” he said.
Acorn was one of four skaters from Yellowknife who hit the ice in Grande Prairie. Kali Skauge raced in the T2T 12 girls division, where she finished 10th overall while Luke Dizon and Lachlan MacGillivray both raced in the T2T 13 boys division, placing seventh and 16th respectively.
Egan said the meet was a good competition for the skaters to take part in.
“It was a deep pool of skaters in each division with lots of depth,” she said. “This is going to go a long way in their development.”