Kíra Amschl won the bronze medal in the 500 meters at the Junior Short Track Speed Skating World Championships in Salt Lake City.
The current season is shorter than usual for junior short track speed skaters, at least in terms of the dates of the major competitions. In the fall season, the junior national team—which underwent significant changes over the summer compared to last season, becoming younger, so to speak—competed in the age-group World Cups, with Luca Haltrich’s bronze medal in the 500 meters standing out among the many impressive results. The season’s target competition, the Junior World Championships, was held earlier than usual, between January 29 and February 1, due to the Winter Olympics, roughly a month earlier than usual.
The World Championships were hosted by Salt Lake City in the United States, and we were able to cheer on eight Hungarian competitors (Kíra Amschl, Luca Haltrich, Dóra Szigeti, Natasa Z. Molnár, Mihály Árendás, Dominik Hallósy, Dominik Major, and Borisz Z. Molnár) who spent a week in Calgary, Canada, before the event to adjust to the time zone and North American conditions.
“We are in a good position on both the boys’ and girls’ fronts, but it is impossible to predict whether this will be enough. We also do not yet know what the composition of our rivals will be due to the Olympics, we do not have our strongest age group girls here either,” said Tamás Lakatos, head coach of the national team, referring to Diána Laura Végi, who is skipping the junior world championships to prepare for the Winter Olympics with the senior team, which begins on February 6. “We will try to do our best, but the World Championships are always difficult. The goal is to get as many of us as possible into the A final, and then anything can happen. It would make things easier for us if we could go straight from the qualifiers to the quarterfinals and semifinals, thus we would not have to tire ourselves out with the consolation rounds.”
Kíra Amschl, who reached the A final in the 500 meters, finishing third, achieved the greatest result of her career so far with a bronze medal at the world championships in her age group.
In addition to her, Dominik Major (1000 meters) and Natasa Z. Molnár (1500 meters) also advanced to the semifinals in individual events, with the former winning the B final (finishing 7th overall) and the latter failing to advance to the final. The mixed relay team also made it to the semifinals, and in the field of fifteen teams, the Hungarians finished second in the B final, which meant 7th place overall.
Our young athletes can be satisfied with their season, as after the World Cups, the World Championships also went well, and two of the age-group short trackers will be traveling to the Olympic Games in Milan, which begin on Friday: in addition to the aforementioned Diána Laura Végi, Dominik Major will also be competing, replacing Péter Jászapáti, who was recently injured.
Via MTI, Nemzeti Sport; Featured image: MTI/Illyés Tibor
The post Kíra Amschl Brings Home a Bronze From the Junior Short Track Speed Skating Championships appeared first on Hungary Today.
