Unprecedented Success for Great Britain’s Short Track
Speed Skaters
 The
Great Britain Short Track Speed Skating Squad have continued
in their improvement into 2008. The World Junior Championships
took place in Bolzano, Italy from 11-13th January where the
team gained 4 Top 10 results, the highlights being 4th place
from the Ladies Relay; team members were Core TASS athletes
Alex Whelbourne and Charlotte Gilmartin along with TASS 2012
athlete Elise Christie. This result was then improved on again
with Elise taking the first female World Junior Championship
medal, silver in the Ladies 500m event. Elise said afterwards,
“I was a little surprised by the result but the experience
that I have gained from the Senior World Cup events this season
has enabled me to cope with the environment at the World Junior
Championships and helped me to win the Silver medal.
All three girls are members of the National Squad and World
Class Performance Programme, training full time at the National
Ice Centre, Nottingham. The full team for the World Junior
Championships consisted of the three girls along with Ian
Upcott (Core TASS) and Jack Whelbourne (Core TASS).
The following weekend 18-20th January brought the Senior
European Short Track Championships in Ventspils, Latvia, 2
senior Ladies Sarah Lindsay (World Class Performance) and
Joanna Williams (Core TASS) joined the 3 junior girls and
5 Senior Men to make up the full team.
Great Britain’s medal haul from the 2007 European Championships
was Silver for Sarah Lindsay in the Ladies 500m event and
Bronze for the Mens 5000m Relay team. The Squad hoped to improve
on these results although Sarah is recovering from a major
back injury, which has ruled her out of the individual events,
she did compete in the Ladies 3000m Relay team. Teenager Elise
Christie filled the individual slot in the Ladies event, and
the Mens individual slots went Jon Eley (World Class Performance)
and Paul Stanley (TASS 2012).
Elise continued her good form from the previous weekend gaining
top 10 places in all 3 distances, one slight disappointment
came in the 1500m semi-final when with 1 lap remaining of
the 13 ½ lap race and Elise in a qualifying position
for the Final the race was stopped by the referee due to an
injury of another skater, the race was re-ran and despite
a valiant effort Elise failed to qualify into the final. The
final position for Elise in this senior competition was 9th
place Overall. For a junior this was an exceptional result.
In the Mens individual competition the strength of both the
skaters lay in the 500m sprint event, both Jon and Paul performed
well in the 1500m event on the first day of the competition
resulting in top 10 positions for them both.
On the second day of competition which was the 500m event,
a disqualification in the quarter finals for Paul Stanley
cost him any chance of a medal, Jon Eley on the other hand
went from strength to strength through to the final, where
after making a spectacular overtake moving from 3rd to 1st
position with 1 ½ laps remaining he went on to take
the Gold medal, in front of the 2007 European Champion Nicola
Rodigari (ITA) who took Silver and 2007 World Cup ranked number
1 sprinter Tyson Heung (GER) in Bronze
Jon said afterwards “ I felt the Championships went
well, I felt stronger through the rounds and my confidence
was building. The line up for the final of the 500m was very
strong but I felt sure that the Gold medal was mine to win.
I got a good start but was overtaken in the middle of the
race, I knew I had more speed than the other skaters, I set
up the overtake which I executed very well and obviously I
am very pleased with the outcome.
Training has been going very well at home, I have worked hard
going into these championships, and this is not supposed to
be my peak, so I’m looking forward to building into
the last two World Cup events and then on to the World Championships
in March”.
Medals for Great Britain were not restricted to the individual
events, the Mens 5000m Relay team qualified well through the
rounds, Jon Eley and Paul Stanley were joined by team mates
Paul Worth (TASS 2012), Tom Iveson (TASS 2012) and Anthony
Douglas (TASS 2012). In the final Great Britain faced opposition
from World Ranked number 2, Italy, and also World ranked top
10 teams from France and Russia.
The race started well for the team, as the 45-lap race progressed
it became a match between Italy and Great Britain, with the
lead continuously changing between the two teams. Italy just
outpaced Great Britain on the final 2 laps to take the Gold
medal; a well-deserved Silver medal went to Great Britain
with France in Bronze. Performance Director Stuart Horsepool
said, “ The team skated well pushing the Italians all
the way, and will gain a lot of confidence from this performance”.
The big surprise came from the Ladies Relay team; who went
through the rounds setting new British Records in each race.
The team went one step further than last year finishing 2nd
in the semi final thus qualifying into the Final, the Hungarian
team were advanced into the final which meant that 5 teams
would battle it out. The line up included the reigning European
Champions Germany, Bulgaria, Poland along with Hungary and
Great Britain.
All 5 ladies, Sarah Lindsay, Elise Christie, Charlotte Gilmartin,
Alex Whelbourne and Joanna Williams (Core TASS) participated
during the qualifying rounds, with the team for the final
being, Sarah, Elise, Charlotte and Joanna. Once again the
team broke the British Record and with an inspirational last
2 laps from Elise Christie, where she took the team from 3rd
to 1st place winning an unexpected but well deserved Gold
Medal.
Stuart added “Overall it has been a very good two weeks
for British Short Track Speed Skating. The Squad now move
on to the final 2 events of the 2007/2008 World Cup series
where they hope to qualify for the World Championship Relay
event (only the top 7 ranked teams from the World Cups plus
the host nation qualify for the World Championships). Qualification
will be hard but possible if the skaters can continue and
even improve their present performance level”.
World Cup 5 – Quebec, Canada. 1st -3rd February 2008
World Cup 6 – Salt Lake City, USA – 8th –
10th February 2008
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