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Morton puts in strong showing at Biathlon World Championships

 

Morton puts in strong showing at Biathlon World Championships

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Morton puts in strong showing at Biathlon World Championships
Damon Morton has put in a strong showing as he made his World Championships debut in Hochfilzen, Austria, finishing 87th in the 10 km Sprint.

BIATHLON: Damon Morton has put in a strong showing as he made his World Championships debut in Hochfilzen, Austria, finishing 87th in the 10 km Sprint.

The youngest participant in the field, Morton skied his best race of his season finishing 10% behind gold medallist Martin Fourcade of France.

Morton commented after the race that the wind was quite difficult and was different from where he sighted in to where he had to shoot prone. He was unlucky in the shooting and just missed his first shot in both the prone and standing positions.

"I didn’t quite settle and took the shots too early and missed to the right," Morton said. 

"My first lap was very good and I skied the best I ever have."

In the prone shooting Damon ranked 16th fastest and standing 24th fastest.

Morton's quick ski time earned him some very good World ranking points of 113.4 which is both a trimester 1 2017/18 World Cup qualifying result and a PyeongChang Olympic qualifying result. 

Only four athletes from Asian nations finished ahead which bodes well as Morton prepares for Australia's Asian Winter Games debut later this month in Sapporo, Japan.

Morton is now the only Southern Hemisphere athlete to have met the individual Winter Olympic Games athlete qualification one year out from PyeongChang.

‘I am very pleased with him and am very satisfied with his development," Coach Obererlacher, who is an Olympic Gold medal coach in his own right, commented after the race.

"I think we have been working very well since Christmas. He now has great confidence and works on all levels very professionally.

"He also learns this professionalism and is already very mature for his age. He is very happy about today's performance and is motivated accordingly. We will continue to do our best."

Morton is due to race the 20km Individual event on the 11th February at 12.30pm local time.

The last time Hochfilzen, Austria, hosted the Biathlon World Championships was in 2005. Back then Norway's Ole Einar Bjorndalen, aged 31, was the hot favourite and Damon’s dad Cameron Morton, also aged 31, was Australia’s sole representative and placed 60th in the 20km event to qualify for the Torino Olympics.

Damon, aged 20, is aspiring to create his own history and qualify for PyeongChang while Bjorndalen is still one of the stars aged 43. Damon’s performance shows that he is on the right track and Bjorndalen is also on track to his 7th Olympics and continues to write biathlon history.

Morton is looking to raise funds to help him progress towards. You can help support him here>>>

Cameron Morton

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