Olympic Winter Institute short track team member Ben Southee has skated to gold in the 1000m at the Australian Youth Olympic Festival, capping off a meet which saw the local skaters collect two gold, two silver and two bronze medals against tough international opposition.

Competing for the first year at the Sydney Festival, Southee won a second gold medal as a member of the men's 5000m relay alongside OWI team-mate Alex Merriman, and Grant Hester and Corey Williams, and also added bronze in the 3000m.

Merriman raced to two minor medals as well as his relay gold - bronze behind Southee in the 1000m event, and silver in the 500m.

The final silver was won by the 3000m women's relay team of Marissa Earle, Alix-Myra Anderson, Lyla Abdallah-Pinney and Tabitha Caldecutt.

In the women's individual events, Anderson was the best of the Australians, placing fourth in the 1000m, and fifth in the 1500m and 3000m. Marissa Earle collected fifth in the 500m.

The AYOF has served as an excellent opportunity for Merriman and Southee to prepare for the next World Cup to be held in Hungary in a fortnight.

OWI Head Short Track Coach Ann Zhang was delighted with her skaters' debut at the AYOF.
 
"It was a great competition at home," Zhang said, "and the team did very well."
 
"The Chinese opposition was very strong, with one of their men having just moved up to the Chinese National Squad."
 
"He is at the same level as Alex and Ben, but his racing experience is much better, so it was good to compete against him at these AYOF games."
 
"We have a big job coming up at the fifth and sixth World Cups of the season in the next few weeks, so the Youth Olympic Festival was very good preparation for us as we try to make the top 8 in the men's relay."
 
"It was a very good opportunity for our younger skaters to get experience against the Chinese and they did very well. The girls were very close to the Chinese girls, and the younger boys did a good job in the relay."
 
"We are very happy about the results, but this is still a junior level competition, not a World Cup or World Championship. We have learnt some important things from this competition about the Chinese racing performance and racing experience."
 
"I would like to thank the AOC for including to the short track at AYOF games. It is such a good idea for the development of our sport in Australia."