GOLD BECK-ONS
WINTER OLYMPICS Elise in a rush to outdo partner GREYHOUNDS
THEY are dubbed the ‘Posh and Becks’ of short-track – only they hope to have matching gold medals, rather than gold thrones.
Elise Christie and Shaolin Liu have four world titles between them, though the Scot never gets tired of telling her Hungarian partner that she owns three of them. He likes to remind her that he won his first.
Liu finished just outside the medals in his first event here, while Christie progressed to tomorrow’s 500m quarter-finals in an Olympic record time.
“It’s always pretty hard watching Elise,” said Liu. “I was in the stands shouting. I know she couldn’t hear anything but I couldn’t stop myself.
“I know she was nervous but she’s getting better, I’m teaching her. I think it’s a really good thing to be in the same sport and giving advice to each other.
“We’re trying to help each other and handle the pressure together. We’re seeing each other when we can in the village but we’re both very focused on what we have to do here.
“We can celebrate Valentine’s Day when we have finished, hopefully both with Olympic gold medals.”
Christie admitted to a bad case of nerves on the start line in the first of her three events. But she is the world record holder over 500m and clocked 42.872 seconds to break the eight-year Olympic record.
That set up a showdown with South Korea’s Minjeong Choi, with three tension-packed races standing between the Scot and her Olympic ambition.
“I had the top Korean and Chinese girl in my heat and only two of us could go through,” added Christie.
“When I saw it, I thought, ‘Bloomin’ heck’ but I knew if I beat them, then that is one less rival to worry about for the next round.
“I’m really pleased with that time, it shows that I’m in the sort of form I want to be in, especially as I wasn’t going 100 per cent. That was my best start in years and that is really going to help my nerves. If I can get a start in the next round it will really help my confidence. “Obviously it’s all about the gold but if I can beat the world record too, that would be awesome.”