After a brilliant Winter games for the entire Australian Team, the skating team can certainly take some positives out of the results from Vancouver.
Sophie Muir, after training in the ice discipline of speed skating for less than two years under the tutelage of Desly Hill and Rogina De Jong, achieved a placing of 29th in the 500m samalog. After her first 500m, Sophie had been in 31st position and skating .2 of a second faster in her second race, moved up two positions.
Her 1000m race saw Sophie finish in 30th place overall with a time of 1:18.79, just 2.23 seconds behind the winner. Given the big slices of time that Sophie has taken off her ice times in the past two seasons would suggest that with another 4 years training, a podium in Sochi is not out of the question. It needs to be remembered that Sophie has been a world champion in the world of inline, which is where a lot of the past and current medalists have come from in the world of LT speed skating.
SHORT TRACK:
Tatiana (Tanya) Borodulina competed in all three distances of 500m, 1000m and 1500m.
Short track is a very fickle sport in that one ill fated move, one mistimed overtake or one small bump can change the outcome of a race. Tanya's performances were very credible given that the 500m has been the event in which she has won her two World Cup gold medals and is the event in which she probably didn't fulfil her expectations - whereas her other two events probably exceeded them.
500m - 3rd Heat 2 - ranking 21st based on time and position
1000m - 4th B Final - ranking of 7th based on position
1500m - 3rd B Final - ranking of 11th based on position
Lachlan Hay competed in the 1000m event in Vancouver but failed to make it out of his heat. Lachlan stayed with the pack but was unable to make a move into an advancement position. It was the closest heat of the games with all four skaters being within .217 of a second of the heat winner LEE Ho-Suk, the eventual silver medalist
1000m - 4th heat - ranking 26th based on time and position
THE FUTURE:
There are several long track skaters working in the background competing in small events and working towards lowering their times. The future for Australian LT is arguably at its strongest in decades. Hopefully the appearance of Sophie at the Vancouver Games will inspire other inliners across to the challenge of training in wintery conditions, and who knows, maybe some more short trackers like Ben Southee.
There are of course the skaters who narrowly missed out on Olympic selection in Daniel Greig, Joshua Lose and Ben Southee whose careers in skating are far from over - all of them possessing world class talent which has been displayed during this season's world cups.
Sophie and Daniel will be competing in the World Cup Final in Erfurt this coming weekend. We wish them the best for this event.
The Australian Speed Skating Blog will continue to report on Australians competing in long track but I will also start to report on the short track scene in an attempt to boost the support for that area of the sport as well.
Congratulations to Sophie, Tanya, Lachie, Desly and Ann on their Olympic appearances for Australia.
Thursday, March 4, 2010
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don't forget... in the 1000m semi, where Tatters came 3rd and was effectively relegated to the B-final, she was placed well in 2nd and got a bit of a bump from the Korean skater when she tried to move back up after falling to 3rd. Also, in that very race, the 1000m world record was broken, so she can certainly hold her head up high.
ReplyDeleteThanks Dan,
ReplyDeleteVery difficult for most of the Aussies who have followed or trained on the ice with Tania to forget how much of a jet she is nor to deflect from her Olympic accomplishments and the personal sacrifices she has made to represent Australia. It also isn't the first time she has been in a race where the world record has fallen if my memory recalls correctly.
Tania has been an inspiration to all the young female short trackers (and no doubt some males!) skating in Australia. It is the first time in a long time where young female skaters have had such a talented skater to follow of the same sex. I expect if we can keep their enthusiasm up over the next four years, we will see many talented girls follow her lead, and also a relay team for the first time (we were very close this time).
And hopefully, Tania will be at the forefront of that team of girls.
Frank