QUEBEC CITY – Connor Howe is now the guy to beat.
Winning two national titles in a three-podium performance at the 2022 Canadian Long Track Championships – where Canada’s fastest speed skaters tested themselves from Oct. 13-16 – the 22-year-old Olympian from Canmore has some good problems heading into the 2022-23 season.
A winner of multiple world cup medals, Howe planted his flag as one of Canada’s most dominating long track specialists with a title defence of his national 1,500-metre crown, and becoming Canada’s mass start champion.
“I don’t think I’ve ever won a mass start before, so that was kind of a nice surprise,” said Howe. “The 1500, I was hoping to keep that title.”
Howe also silvered in 1000m, and took fourth in 5000m at the event in Quebec City – overall his biggest and brightest results at nationals.
"He puts in the hours," said Bart Schouten, Howe’s coach, who has been developing national team athletes since 2010.
Schouten spoke highly of his pupil and said Howe's blossoming speed skating career is trending into the direction of Olympic medal threat.
"I think there’s a future world champion in him and I think there’s a future Olympic medal winner in him," said Schouten. "If everything comes together on the day of the competition, I think he can win."
Coming off a big Olympic year in Beijing, where the first-time Olympian sprinted to fifth in 1500m, Howe has four years until the next Winter Games in Italy. Before then, Howe will prioritize individual racing over the next few seasons and already has a plan in motion to compete at the 2023 World Allround Speed Skating Championships – a competition that determines the best all-round speed skater in the world.
Once there, the fast Canuck would compete in the 500m, 1500m and 5000m races for a combined time. Then the fastest eight skaters advance to the final 10,000m race.
“It’s kind of a two-year little project I’m working on to do the distances all across the board to get ready for that competition,” said Howe.
“I think 1500 is my best chance to reach the podium [internationally], but I’m trying to work on my other distances this year.”
Standing six-foot-four, Howe’s long strides, and powerful, calculated attack at nationals was the first step in the project.
A year ago, Howe sprinted to his first-ever national title, which was the only podium the former Banff Canmore Speedskating athlete previously had at the event.
Starting in the inside line of the 1500m race, Howe paired against fellow Albertan Kaleb Muller from Taber.
Taking control with a big lead, Howe was a bullet out of the gates and mostly raced against himself, clocking in with the fastest time of the day at 1:44.770 – an improvement from his thrilling Olympic race (1:44.86) eight months ago.
But the very next pairing had the crowd jumping in excitement as last year’s silver medallist at nationals Antoine Gélinas-Beaulieu and Tyson Langelaar gave the champion a run for his money.
Langelaar, who was originally paired with Howe in the race, posted faster times than the defending champ after the 300m and 700m checkpoints, up a quarter of a second on the Canmore skater.
In the final lap of the rapid race, Quebecois Gélinas-Beaulieu pushed ahead of Langelaar in a sprint to the finish line at 1:45.094.
Langelaar finished at 1:45.649, taking bronze.
“I watched [Gélinas-Beaulieu and Langelaar] closely, for sure, I didn’t want to be celebrating too early or anything,” said Howe.
The next day, in perhaps the most exciting and unpredictable race, Howe took to the line in the mass start where 17 skaters raced 16 laps (6400m) around the oval. It resulted in a “chaotic finish”.
Howe isn’t too familiar with the mass start, however, after a summer full of high-speed crit racing on a road bike in tight quarters, the local athlete looked at home jockeying for position on the oval among the large crowd.
Jordan Belchos, Howe’s teammate in team pursuit, jumped out to a big lead halfway through, as Howe hovered near the front of the pursuing pack.
Although, Belchos couldn’t hang on, and Graeme Fish, the silver medallist in the 10,000m at nationals, seized the opportunity to push the pace with three laps remaining, breaking away to a 15m lead.
The intensity picked up in the final 600m as Howe moved to the front of the pursuing pack.
As the bell rung with one lap remaining, a mad dash ensued between six skaters, as they frantically sprinted as fast as they could for gold.
Fish’s big lead was gone in seconds as the five chasers hung to his heels; in the second last straight away, Gélinas-Beaulieu blew a tire and crashed; Howe, in a burst of speed, took the outside corner on the final turn, dropping one hand to the ice to stay up. Howe’s power move paid off as he skated past Fish, who moments later slipped and wiped out. With big strides, Howe didn’t ease up in the final metres to victory at a time of 7:49.623.
Hayden Mayeur took second at 7:49.880, and Jake Weidemann was third at 7:49.913.
“The plan was to stay with the top group kind of for the final sprint,” said Howe. “Jordan and Graeme are long-distance, so the only way they could win it would be in a breakaway, but for a couple of us, the best way would be for it to go to a sprint.”
After taking a step up last season on the world cup stage, the new season is weeks away, starting in November in Norway and The Netherlands, and Canada in December.
The ISU Four Continents Championships go down in Quebec City Dec. 2-4, which is followed by back-to-back world cups in Calgary on Dec. 9-11 and 16-18.
“I think he's made another step this year, so we’ll see what it’s worth internationally," said Schouten.
