SHORT TRACK: Australian short track speed skater Julia Moore has won a silver medal at the Winter Youth Olympic Games in Norway playing her part in the mixed nation relay.
The 17-year-old from Melbourne raced the exciting format with Petra Jaszapati (Hungary), Tjerk De Boer (he Netherlands) and Kiichi Shitehiro (Japan). They won their semi-final and just missed the gold in the four-team final at the Gjovik Olympic Cavern Hall, one hour south of Lillehammer
The team covered the 3000m final in four minutes and 14 seconds with each team needing to race their skaters in the sequence of woman, man, woman and man. It is up to each team how far each skater races before they change skaters with plenty of interesting tactics playing out.
“My teammates did amazingly. Everyone focussed really hard and everything went to plan,” Moore said.
“After we won the semi we knew we had a good chance at a medal but I didn’t think about it too much as we didn’t want to jinx it. I’m very excited. It’s so fun when you get to be excited with other people.”
The Team had been working on their changes and tactics in training this week.
“The strongest skaters in the team did two or three laps each and I would do a lap or a half lap. I was really nervous for the heat and didn’t skate too well but for the final I skated really well.
“After my final lap I was so nervous watching my teammates finish and thankfully there were no falls.
“The medal ceremony was unreal I’ve never felt anything like that before it was so exciting I couldn’t stop smiling!”
Moore, in her first international competition, skated big PBs and finished 12th in the individual 1000m and 500m races earlier in the Games and was the last Australian to compete at Lillehammer 2016.
Coach Scott Weekes was really pleased with what his inexperienced skater has achieved.
“She has really grown a lot in this competition. It’s been tough for her coming up for the first time against such great fields but she did what she had to do and really toughed it out,” Weekes said.
At the Lillehammer 1994 Games Steven Bradbury, Richard Nizielski, Andrew Murtha and Kieran Hansen won bronze, with reserve John Kah also part of the team. This medal was Australia’s first at an Olympic winter Games and that streak of medals has continued at every Games since.
Andrew Reid
Olympics.com.au
