Short track speed skater Tatiana Borodulina has celebrated her impending Australian citizenship with two top ten placings in the opening World Cup of the 2009/10 season in Beijing.

The Brisbane 24-year-old finished in second place in her opening heat of the 1500m and posted the same result in her quarter-final.

She could only manage fourth place in the semi-final, and then went down to US skater Allison Baver in the B final, finishing in eighth place overall.

Borodulina followed up with tenth place in the 500m after going out to world champion Wang Meng of China and strong Canadian skater Katyna Roberge in the quarter final.

“I’m very happy with Tatiana’s performance today,” said Olympic Winter Institute Short Track Head Coach Ann Zhang.

“She missed more than a month of skating when she was at her army training camp, and after the 1500m she just ran out of legs.”

”But she was still able to do heaps of passing and a lot of leading, and could have made the final of the 1500m.”

“She’s not up to her top speed yet, but her long distance racing is better than last year, and she has showed she can qualify for Vancouver in all three distances.”

Borodulina has now won two gold and two bronze medals and collected another 13 top ten results from the 20 events she has contested since first skating for Australia.

She missed a third top ten opportunity over her most successful distance, the 1000m, after being disqualified in her second round heat.

The OWI skater is expected to be sworn in as an Australian citizen at a ceremony in Seoul on Tuesday, prior to competing in the second World Cup of the season in the Korean city, commencing on Friday.

Australia also fielded a men’s 5000m relay team for the first time in three years, the quartet finishing in 13th place overall.

“They did very well to get through their opening heat alongside Japan and China, but dropped off the pace in the quarterfinal and it’s very hard when you do that.”

“But it was the first time the team has competed together, and the first World Cup for Pierre Boda, who’s only 16, so it’s a good start.”

In the individual men’s events, Jeremy Beck produced the best result, finishing in 23rd place in the 1000m.

OWI