Winter sports Borodulina skates to two World Cup victories in two days
04 Mar 2009
AIS athlete Tatiana Borodulina has become the first Australian to win a gold medal in a World Cup short track race, claiming first place in the Samsung ISU World Cup 500-metre event in Dresden, Germany.
A day later, the skater repeated her victory in a second 500-metre event.
At the start of the final in the first race, Borodulina trailed her two main opponents, but produced a blistering burst of speed to pass them both in the final leg of the race. Silver went to Chinese skater Fu Tian Yu, the world number three, and bronze to Italy’s Arianna Fontana.
The next day, the 24-year-old Brisbane skater was again in top form, adding a second gold to her collection, relegating Fontana and Bulgaria's Evgenia Rodanova to second and third place.
Borodulina's second result lifted her to the world number three ranking for the 500-metre short track race.
AIS/Olympic Winter Institute short track Head Coach Ann Zhang was delighted by Borodulina's performance.
‘In the final she followed Fu and Fontana until the last half lap to go, put the power on to accelerate before she entered into the last corner, then took off from outside to pass them. She was smart and did everything we had planned,' said Zhang.
‘We are very happy, all the team is happy too, but we know the world number one Meng Wang was missing today, and that we still have lots of things to do if Tatiana wants to race with her and the rest of the Chinese team.'
Jeremy Beck produced the best of the Institute's men's results at the World Cup, skating to 14th place in the 1000-metre event. AIS team-mate Elliot Shriane finished in 27th place in the 500 metres and 23rd in the second sprint over the same distance, while Lachlan Hay placed 26th in the 1500 metres.
