PREVIEW: Australian Daniel Greig races Dutch friends for historic podium
SPEED SKATING: The Sochi 2014 Speed Skating events have got off to a great start, with Sven Kramer breaking the Olympic record on Day 1 and winning gold in a Dutch clean sweep of medals in the men’s 5000m. In the women’s 3000m on Day 2, Ireen Wust gave the Netherlands its second straight gold medal at the Adler Arena.
It’s now time for the sprinters to be the stars of the show, as Australian Daniel Greig and his competitors compete in the 500m.
Greig, 22, is in top form and is pushing for a podium finish.
"A couple of years ago, I set myself the goal of top five,” Greig said. “It was a pretty lofty goal back then, and even now it's not going to be easy. The best guys in the world are here and they are all in the form of their life too."
Greig is fresh off the back of two silver medals over the 500m distance at the World Sprint Speed Skating Championships in Nagano, Japan.
He has had some good training sessions on the ice since arriving in Sochi last week and is confident but not complacent ahead of his Olympic debut. He knows he is fast, but he also knows that he will need to get everything together absolutely perfectly on the day, with the top 20 skaters expected to be only fractions of a second apart.
Greig’s training partner, Dutch skater Michel Mulder, is one of the hot favourites for a podium finish. Mulder recently edged out Greig for gold in both the 500m races at the World Championships.
As well a Greig chasing his training partner, Michael races his twin brother Ronald.
Mo Tae Bum of Korea is looking to defend his Olympic title from Vancouver 2010 but there will be fierce competition from Japan’s Joji Kato who won bronze at the last Games and is looking to climb the podium.
Since the 1998 Nagano Games, the 500m event has been run as two races, with the times added together and the best overall times winning the medals. Both 500m races will be contested on Day 3, Monday 10 February, from 5pm and 6.55pm local time.
Greig, a former junior inline world junior champion, will also contest the 1000m on Day 5, Wednesday 12 February.
Colin Hickey, who represented Australia at three Olympics, finished 7th in the 500m and 1000m at Squaw Valley in 1960. Greig should eclipse this Australian best result and is capable of even more.