For Alanna Kraus, the best thing about last season is the fact it's history. The Olympic short track speed skater would rather forget about 2003-04, preferring to look ahead to this year and the 2006 Winter Olympics in Italy, even though she won her first individual medal at the 2004 world championships in Sweden.
"I had a really bad beginning last year. My boyfriend's dad passed away and last year was kind of a write-off. It ended well but I've had some up-anddown seasons in the last couple of years," said the 27-year-old from Abbotsford, B.C.
Even winning bronze at worlds in the 1,500m lost a little of its lustre after the Canadian team pulled out at the end of the competition in protest of the rink size and the fact Quebec's Jonathan Guilmette hurt his back when he was taken out by a Korean skater.
"It was great because it was my first medal but it was kind of a weird situation with everything that happened," said Kraus, an education student who plans on becoming a teacher.
But, so far this season things are going well for Kraus.
Yesterday at the Canadian short track World Cup team trials at the Oval, she won the women's 500m in 45.136 seconds and earned 1,000 points towards a spot on the World Cup team for events in the U.S. and Quebec.
"It'll help me heading into (today) and with short track you've got to pick up points whenever you can, so I'm just happy to get 1,000 points," said Kraus, adding the 2006 Olympics will be her swan song.
Quebec's Melanie Gagnon was second in 45.250, followed by another Quebec skater, Chantale Sevigny.
With her win yesterday, Kraus vaulted to the top of the women's leaderboard with 1,543 points.
In the men's 500, Charles Hamelin of Levis, Que., set an unofficial world record with a time of 41.035 in the semifinal but it won't enter the books because it's not an International Skating Union event or a national championship. But the mark does become the Canadian record.
Hamelin won the final as well, skating a time of 41.424 seconds, beating Francois-Louis Tremblay (41.572) and B.C.'s Cory Rasmussen (41.695).
