LILLEHAMMER – The Women’s Grand Final participants of the Youth Olympic Games Skills Challenge event have been decided, following the end of the qualification phase at Kristins Hall in Lillehammer, Norway.
The second stage of the Skills Challenge women’s qualification round took place on Day 3 of the Youth Olympic Games. The top eight players in the points ranking would advance to the Grand Final on 16 February.
After the last four disciplines were contested, the top eight finalists announced. The Grand Finallists include representatives from Europe, Asia and Oceania:
Theresa Shafzahl-AUSTRIA
Sena Takenaka-JAPAN
Madison Poole-AUSTRALIA
Millie Rose Sirum-NORWAY
Su Yeon Eom-KOREA
Tabea Botthof-GERMANY
Martina Fedorova-SLOVAKIA
Anita Muraro-ITALY
The first skills discipline of the day saw Austria’s Theresa Schafzakl take on Su Yeon Eom of Korea in the final of the Skating Agility competition. In a very tight race it was Schafzahl who came through with a time of 13.84 as Eom had time deducted for failing to touch the last marker.
The win put Schafzahl in good position to advance to the Grand Final, after finishing in 3rd and 4th place in the Fastest Lap and Shooting Accuracy challenges the day before.
“It feels pretty good, in the qualification (held in Finland in the summer) I only finished in seventh place,” said Shafzahl. “I didn’t expect to perform like I did.”
She cemented her place after making it to another skills final heat, this time in the Passing Precision discipline where she competed against Chinouk Van Calster of Belgium.
But this time Van Calster who came through with the win and the five points, hitting all five targets on just seven attempts in 16.19 seconds, her best performance by far in all of her four heats.
In the Puck Control event it was Fastest Lap winner Madison Poole of Australia against Slovakia’s Martina Fedorova in the final heat. Poole had a good start and was neck and neck with Fedorova, but stumbled and lost the puck on the last turn in the second puck control segment, allowing the Slovak to get some much-needed points to add to her total and put her in the eighth and final spot heading into the final skill: Fastest Shot.
Going into the final discipline things got interesting with a four-player tie for the last two positions, with Van Calster of Belgium, Millie Rose Signum of Norway, Verity Lewis from Great Britain, and Martina Fedorova of Slovakia with ten points each.
A technical issue forced to delay the fastest shot event to the end of the challenge, but once things got going the quarter-final heat saw Fedorova lose in the semi-final to Dutch challenger Maree Dijkema. This opened the door for Signum, who fired a 117 Km/hr blast to put her past Dijkema and into the final round, to the delight of the Norwegian fans in attendance.
Signum put an exclamation point on the qualification event, blasting a 123 km/hr shot in the final to win the Fastest Shot discipline and earn a trip to the Grand Final.
“I needed to win that one to have a chance, it’s my strongest skill,” said Signum, who plays on a boys’ team and also a women’s team, both in Olso. “It’s really fun to be able to represent my country and compete here, there were a lot of people watching and I was nervous but it’s great.”
The end of the qualification phase meant that the Youth Olympic journey had to end for eight of the 16 Skills Challenge athletes. The end result was particularly tough on Van Calster and Verity Lewis, who were visibly emotional after just missing out on the Grand Final by a single point.
But despite the end, all of these athletes appreciated the tremendous opportunity to be able to compete in an Olympic ice hockey event, one that doesn’t come often to some for the nations that were competing in the Skills Challenge.
“Incredible, it is an honour to be here and I feel so good and bad at the same time, but still it is an honour,” said Argentine athlete Iara Haiek, “I made a lot of friends here and it was a great experience."
ADAM STEISS
