ISU European Short Track Championships: Elise Christie targets 1000m title defence
Thursday 22 January 2015 17:05, UK
Elise Christie will bid to retain her 1000m title at the European Short Track Championships in the Netherlands this weekend.
The situation is very different to last year for the Sky Academy Sports Scholar, who 12 months ago was building up to the Winter Olympics as one of the medal favourites.
Three contentious disqualifications put an end to any hopes of Olympic glory but in the tough months that followed Christie did pick up a world silver medal in the 500m and is now determined to make a major impact at the championships in Dordrecht.
I probably won’t win it the same way that I did last year but I’m still going to try and get on top of the podium
Christie's season has been disrupted by injury and as such she admits she is a long way from being at her physical peak. Instead, the GB skater has focused on improving her race tactics, aiming to turn one of her biggest weaknesses in previous years into a strength.
“I’m looking forward to getting out there and using all the tactics that I have been talking about,” Christie told Sky Sports.
“Hopefully because I’ll be quite tired (after a week of hard training) I can use my tactics even more because they will be more important.”
While medals are always the target for Christie, the 24-year-old maintains that her primary target this season is the World Championships and that as much as she would like to win, the Euros are merely a stepping stone.
Focused
“I’ll be focused on all three distances here whereas I might just focus on two of the distances at the worlds,” she added.
“It is different but I still want to go out and retain my 1000m gold from last year – that’ll be one of my main focuses – then at 500m I’ve never actually medalled in the Europeans so I’m hoping to try and get up on the podium on that.
“They’re my two main goals I’ve got for the weekend but I’m going to be more focused on the process than on those outcome goals.”
Christie will be helped by the presence of GB team-mate Charlotte Gilmartin who is establishing herself as one of Europe’s top skaters, but it is Italian Arianna Fontana who looks set to be Christie’s fiercest rival this weekend. It promises to be an intriguing battle between not only two of the world's best skaters but also between two opposing styles.
“Obviously, Arianna is the biggest rival. She is the one I had the crash with at the Games and she’s tactically very skilled,” said Christie.
“I’ve got a bit more physical ability than her and she’s tactically more able than me so often the races are very close between us, she’ll be my biggest rival.
“In the World Championships' final there might be six skaters with contrasting styles but when it is just two main skaters, like me and Arianna, then it can become very interesting.”
