Kiwi team to take fight to favourites
It’s ‘‘business time’’ for Peter Michael and the New Zealand speed skating team as they try to upset the favourites in the men’s Olympic semifinals in PyeongChang, South Korea, tonight.
Racing against hosts South Korea, who topped the table on Monday morning (NZT) in the qualifiers, the Kiwis aren’t showing any signs of nerves.
Michael says his team are there to win a medal and they won’t be happy coming home without one.
‘‘I definitely think we can [win], that’s what we came here for. Obviously we have to lay it down and there’s a little bit of luck as always with any sport, but I think we have a good fighting chance.’’
The trio of Reyon Kay, Michael and Shane Dobbin were paired against Norway in the quarterfinals and, while struggling with a warmer ice temperature in PyeongChang than they had been used to in training, they delivered a time of 3min 41sec to grab fourth place and narrowly make it through.
The Republic of Korea set the bar with 3.39.29 and toppled world heavyweights the Netherlands, who rounded out the heats with 3.40.03. Norway was able to grab third place with a time of 3.40.03.
Michael told Stuff the quarterfinal was a below-par run for the Kiwi trio and they would be looking to improve their time against Korea tonight (midnight, NZ time).
‘‘We have to get through the semifinal against Korea first, it’s knock-out so that will be difficult. We are in the best four teams so obviously have a chance. It’s never ever going to be easy, but should be some fun. But definitely aiming for that medal.
‘‘[It’s] business time after that.’’
This week the team have been training as per usual while ‘‘ironing out a few kinks’’ in time for the highly anticipated final.
Michael said he is surprised at the interest from back home, but it was an extra boost for the team in their hunt for a medal.
‘‘It’s a good pressure if anything, obviously it’s really nice to have the support of a country behind you. But we put a lot of pressure on ourselves too. We obviously don’t like losing so motivated to come back stronger in the next run.’’
Michael narrowly missed out on a medal in the men’s individual 5000 metres last week when he finished fourth.
Dobbin pulled out of the men’s 10,000 metres to concentrate on the team pursuit.