Jack Whelbourne might have won World Short Track Speed Skating Championships relay bronze on his backside last time out, but this year he is determined to make the competition stand up and take note.
Whelbourne, along with Elise Christie, Jon Eley and Charlotte Gilmartin, has qualified to compete in the individual events at this year’s World Championships following a series of stellar performances throughout the World Cup this season.
And the 23-year-old is set to be a busy bee in Moscow as he teams up with Richard Shoebridge, Eley and one of Billy Simms and Joshua Cheetham in the men’s 5000m relay.
Last time in Canada Whelbourne brought Great Britain home for a bronze medal, coming across the line on his back to do so.
And while Whelbourne would love to climb the podium once again, he is determined to do so in a much more traditional fashion.
“This has been my best senior season on the World Cup circuit and I can’t wait to get going out in Moscow now,” he said.
“I have had some good results in most World Cups and although I haven’t quite been able to get my first podium finish I have had some pleasing and promising results.
“And most of these came in the last couple of World Cups which bodes well for the World Championships and hopefully I can carry my form over.
“Last year I managed to pick up a medal even if it wasn’t the way I had perhaps planned it, sliding across the finish line on my bum.
“We have a slightly different and younger squad in the men’s relay this time but we will still be aiming for another medal, although it is in the individual events where I really want to leave my mark.
“I feel like I have really come on this year and stepped up a gear and there is no better place to show that than at the World Championships.”
And Whelbourne believes this improved season on the ice is all down to putting in the hard hours when the dust on last term had barely even settled.
“I spent the summer in Korea at a training camp and it was great for me, I was training with about 40 other people of all ages and I really learnt a lot,” he added.
“It might have made me tired at the beginning of the season because I had been working so hard, but that is why I have finished the season so strongly.
“It took me a while to get it to pay off but now I believe it is and with any luck I will peak at the World Championships.”
© Sportsbeat 2015