Performance director Stuart Horsepool wants one last push from Britain’s seven-strong squad at the World Short Track Speed Skating Championships, which begin in Hungary on Friday.
World Cup 1000m champion and two-time European gold medallist Elise Christie heads up the British team in Debrecen and is one of four set to compete individually.
She will join Charlotte Gilmartin, who won 1500m bronze at the Europeans in January, Jon Eley and Paul Stanley in doing so with their World Cup performances this season making them eligible.
Eley and Stanley will also take to the ice in the men’s 5000m relay with Jack Whelbourne and Richard Shoebridge, while Joshua Cheetham will act as the reserve.
The men’s relay team reached three finals during the World Cup season while two-time Olympian Eley was a best of fifth, Gilmartin a best of sixth and Stanley a best of seventh.
And, with less than a year until the Sochi 2014 Olympics, British short track speed skating performance director Horsepool, is excited by what he sees in the squad.
“The team has had a good season so far this year and I was especially pleased with the team’s performance at the World Cup in Sochi at the Olympic test event,” said Horsepool.
“We have had 22 top-eight finishes from a number of different skaters at World Cups this season, which just shows the depth of talent we have going into World’s and beyond in Sochi 2014.
“This year we have seen several of our skaters really coming into their own and thriving in competition against some of the best athletes in the world, which is very exciting.
“Short track will always be unpredictable sport though, so this year we have been strongly focused on performance and developing race skills over medals targets, because the more experience they can take into Sochi, the better.”
© Sportsbeat 2013