Just eight months ago, Jonathan Guilmette lay in a Swedish hospital with a fractured vertebrae in his back. One of Canada's best short-track speed skaters wasn't sure what the future held at that point.
But now he's back on the ice, albeit a little rusty.
Yesterday at the national team trials for the next two World Cups, the 26-year-old was disqualified in the final of the 1,500m, won by Montreal's Steve Robillard. After the race, Guilmette slammed his helmet down in disgust after his brush with Levis, Que.'s Charles Hamelin, who finished third.
"I was on the inside and he came back on me in the corner and got inside but he said that he didn't see me," said the easy going Guilmette.
While he was angry with the result, Guilmette's happy to be back on the ice so soon from his injury, after already competing in the first two World Cups this season and helping the men's relay team win two medals.
"I'm pretty surprised. This summer I was going to forget this season and do some preparations for the Olympics (next season) and I wasn't expecting to be ready for those first World Cups," said Guilmette, who won two medals at the Salt Lake City Winter Games and another 13 on the World Cup circuit last year.
That said, he's still bitter about what happened in March at the world championships in Sweden, when he was taken out, intentionally according to the Canadians, by South Korea's Seung-Jae Lee in the 1,000m and slid into the boards, injuring his back.
The Koreans are notorious for their dirty skating style and Guilmette is still angry.
"He's always been a bodyguard for their top skaters, protecting their best ones in the race," said Guilmette, adding the Canadian team has requested the ISU to sanction Korea but the plea has fallen on deaf ears.
"It's not something where people aren't sure if it was done on purpose or not. Everybody saw what happened."
After the incident, the Canadian team pulled out of the competition as a protest.
The injury left Guilmette in hospital for a week and he had to undergo surgery on his 11th vertebrae.
In the women's 1,500m, Tania Vicent of Laval, Que., finished first in 2:22.457, followed by Amanda Overland in 2:22.484. Chantale Sevigny of Sherbrooke, Que., was third in 2:22.620. Calgary's Alanna Kraus was fourth and got 543 valuable points.
On tap today are the 500m races starting at 10 a.m. with the qualifying heats. The finals go at 1:50 p.m.
