AusLeisure

Melbourne's new ice rink at Docklands, The Medibank Icehouse, is set to host the Australian Ice Racing Short Track Speed Skating National Championships on Friday 1st and Saturday 2nd October.

The event, the first of its type in 20 years, will feature a number of local and national elite and sub-elite athletes competing for divisional national titles across a number of racing distances, including 500, 1000, and 1500 metres, as well as the Mens and Ladies relay events.

Athletes competing for the titles include two time Olympian Lachlan Hay, a Melbourne local, as well as strong candidates for the 2014 Olympic Winter Games, including Julie Jung and Ronnie Caldecutt from Queensland, and Sinead Fogarty and Grant Hester from New South Wales.

Short track speed skating is also set to be the sporting discipline of the Medibank Icehouse's first international competition, to take place in 2012.

On the eve of the 2010 Olympic Winter Games in Vancouver the International Skating Union (ISU) announced that Australian Ice Racing Inc would host the ISU World Junior Short Track Speed Skating Championships in February 2012.

According to Australian Ice Racing, President, Jim Hewish, the announcement is a huge win for the Australian short track speed skating community.

"The last time Australia hosted a World Championship was back in 1991 in Sydney, which also incidentally produced Australia's first ever World Champions in an Olympic Winter Sport, in the form of our Men's Relay Team."

Hewish said that this year's Short Track National Championships would give the city a taste of what is to come in the ISU World Junior Short Track Speed Skating Championships, when the World's most promising junior skaters, aged 19 years and under, will arrive from over 30 countries to compete for the title over four distances.

"The Medibank Icehouse boasts two ice rinks, superior spectator seating, and private facilities for athletes to warm up and stretch while watching the action on a screen. The $58 million ice sports centre is like no other facility in the country and we are proud to host both events, right here."

Short track speed skating is a different sport from long track speed skating in that in long track skating skaters race the clock. In short track, four to six skaters race each other to the finish line, jockeying for position while maintaining speed and balance.

Short track is pack-style so the ice gets crowded. The possibility of colliding with other skaters looms at every turn. Short track skaters must wear hard-shelled helmets, cut resistant clothing, gloves, neck guards, knee and shin pads to protect themselves from spills.

The short track speed skating events are constructed in heats where skaters are eliminated and the heat winner(s) are advanced to the next round, eventually leaving a small handful of skaters who compete in the finals.

Short Track has a worldwide following. While many countries have short track teams, the sport is very popular in China, Korea and Canada. After the 2002 Olympic Winter Games, where Steven Bradbury won a Gold medal in the 1000m, interest and participation in this fantastic sport has shown a steady increase in Australia.

Australian Ice Racing Incorporated has a long history of involvement in both speed skating and short track speed skating.

In 1991 Australian hosted a successful ISU World Championships, and in January 2007, hosted an international Junior Short Track Speed Skating event for the Australian Youth Olympic Festival.

30th March 2010 - VANCOUVER OLYMPIANS TO LAUNCH MELBOURNE ICEHOUSE

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