For short track speed skaters Lachlan Hay and Jeremy Beck the quest to compete at the Vancouver Olympics will be realised or extinguished tomorrow.
Australia’s male skaters had a disappointing World Cup season and have qualified one spot in the 1000 metre for the Games in February. Who will fill that spot will be determined by a skate-off at Iceworld Boondall in Brisbane on Saturday.
The skate-off will comprise a 1000m individual time trial and then 2 x 1000m head to head races.
Hay was a member of the relay team that finished fifth at the Torino Games in 2006 while Beck is gunning for his first Olympic Winter Team.
Beck, 25, who was born in New Zealand described knowing after Saturday whether his Olympic dream was a reality or over was ‘scary stuff’.
Next week Australian Ice Racing plan to nominate to the Australian Olympic Committee for selection Tatiana Borodulina who has been a regular top-10 finisher in the 500m, 1000m, and 1500m over the World Cup season and either Hay or Beck.
The short track section will be the first selections made for the 2010 Australian Olympic Winter Team.
There are around 60 athletes across 11 Olympic disciplines in contention for spots on the Team and over half of them will be competing at events in the northern hemisphere in the coming week.
It will be the first competition of the season for the ski cross athletes (Jenny Owens, Katya Krema, Scott Kneller) who will race in Italy and half of the aerial team will demonstrate their new repertoire of tricks in China. World Cup Champion Lydia Lassila and former World Champion Jacqui Cooper have chosen to skip the event preferring to train through.
The final Australian Team selections are scheduled for the last week in January ahead of the Opening Ceremony on February 12. The anticipated final team size is approximately 37 which would make it Australia’s second largest Winter Team after the 40 representatives in 2006.
To see the full schedule for the coming week click here>>>
To see the prospective Australian Olympic Winter Team and athlete biographies click here>>>
To watch vignettes on the prospective Team click here>>>
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