SHORT TRACK SPEED SKATING: The fourth and final World Cup of the Olympic qualification season is underway in the Russian city of Kolomna. With their Sochi dreams on the line, Australia's short track speed skaters were ready to put it all on the line.
SHORT TRACK SPEED SKATING: The fourth and final World Cup of the Olympic qualification season is underway in the Russian city of Kolomna. With their Sochi dreams on the line, Australia's short track speed skaters were ready to put it all on the line.
DAY 3
Australia's teenage short track star Deanna Lockett took to the ice for her final race in the World Cup series for 2013.
Lockett lined up in the sixth and final heat of the quarter-finals, and drew a tough race facing Great Britain's leading medal hope Elise Christie and China's Wang Meng who picked up four titles at this year's World Championships.
The race did not go Lockett's way however, receiving a penalty that would prevent her from progressing into the semi-final.
DAY 2
Australia's Pierre Boda was in action on day 2 of the Russian World Cup, competing over his favoured 1000m distance. Boda progressed through the first round of racing but was defeated into fourth place in the preliminary round. Boda's teammates Simon Francis and Nate Henry were unlucky to miss out on progressing after their first round.
The relay combination of Boda, Henry, Armstrong Lazenby and Andy Jung were unable to progress past the heats in the 5000m, finishing fourth in a time of 6:57.636.
Eighteen-year-old Deanna Lockett and her teammate Alix-Myra Anderson were also in action in the 1000m. Both ladies progressed through the pre-preliminaries, but Anderson was not able to continue her good form past the preliminary round. Lockett however pushed through into the heats, where she drew current World Cup leader over 1000m, Suk Hee Shim of Korea. Shim took out the race ahead of Zhou Yang of China and Valeriya Reznik of Russia. Lockett was relegated to fourth, just 0.455 seconds behing Shim.
Lockett will now turn her focus back to her pet event - the 1500m, facing the quarter-finals today at 8.11pm AEDT.
DAY 1
The first event of the tournament was the men's 1500m. Victoria's Pierre Boda was the only Aussie to move through the first round of racing to make the heats. The 20-year-old drew one of the fastest heats of the night, and was unlucky to finsih fourth in 2:21.977 and miss out on a quarter-finals berth.
In the first women's race of the night, young-gun Australian Deanna Lockett was second in the 1500m in 2:39.348.
Lockett, 18, will now progress to the quarter-final of her pet 1500m event, which will take place on Saturday at 8.11pm (AEDT).
After missing out on advancing in the 1500m, 26-year-old Alix-Myra Anderson took to the ice again in the 500m but was unable to progress.
In the men's event, Boda showed again how he is improving over the sprint distance, qualifying through two races to make the heats. Skating a time of 43.612, he was not able to grab the top-two spot he needed to progress but gained valuable racing experience.
Boda's teammate Armstrong Lazenby progress through to the preliminary round but was a second off the pace in his group, finising fourth and ending his 500m campaign.
Live results can be viewed at: http://shorttrack.sportresult.com/
