SHORT TRACK SKATING: “Everything is hurting,” Pierre Boda says about the gruelling training schedule he is working through over the past seven weeks.
The Sochi short track Olympian has moved full-time to Korea to prepare for the coming season.
“Basically, the last seven weeks I have been trying to rebuild physically and get back to where I was two years ago. It’s been very tough.”
In the 2015 season Boda posted top-20 performances on the World Cup circuit in his favoured distances of 500m, 1000m and 1500m, including a seventh place in the 1000m.
He returned to the top ten last year at the Olympic Test event in Gangneug, South Korea and a top 20 at the same distance in Salt Lake City, USA.
Boda’s schedule this season requires training up to seven hours a day.
“We have ice, off ice, weights and power endurance. We need everything,” he said. “I’ve been trying to stuff as much as possible into each week and get the most out of it.”
Living away from home in an apartment that is a five-minute walk to the training rink an hour from the heart of Seoul is a small price to pay.
“We’re here for training and I will stay the entire season, apart from races, to qualify for the Olympics.”
How the tough training has measured up will be put to the test at the World Cup Trials in Sydney at the end of July when Boda races in the 500, 1000 and 1500 metres at Canterbury Ice Rink on July 26 and 27.
The first ISU Short Track World Cup will be held from September 28 to October 1 in Budapest, Hungary.
