PH’s Groseclose eyes best race to wrap up Winter Youth Olympics bid

Short track speed skater Peter Groseclose looks to end his Winter Youth Olympics campaign on a high note as he competes in his favored event after failing to reach the semifinals of his first two races

MANILA, Philippines – It is not the end of the road – or the rink – for Filipino-American short track speed skater Peter Groseclose.

The 16-year-old looks to wrap up his Winter Youth Olympics campaign in Gangwon, South Korea on a high note as he competes in his favored event after failing to reach the semifinals of his first two races.

Groseclose sees action in the men’s 500m category, where he’s most adept, on Monday, January 22, with hopes of redeeming himself from a pair of quarterfinal exits in the 1500m and 1000m divisions.

“It’s a less strategic race, it’s a 500, so it’s a sprint,” said two-time Olympic medalist John-Henry Krueger, who coaches Groseclose in Gangwon. “It’s definitely more of a physical race because you’re using your raw power.”

“That’s his best distance.”

Groseclose clocked 1:30.243 in the opening heats of the 1000m class on Sunday, January 21, to advance to the quarterfinals only to fall short once again just like he did in the 1500m category on Saturday, January 20.

Although Groseclose recorded a faster time in the quarterfinals with 1:28.899, he wound up fourth out of five skaters in his group as he narrowly missed the semifinals.

China’s Zhang Xinzhe, USA’s Sean Boxiong Shuai, and Great Britain’s Willem Murray, who all finished ahead of Groseclose, advanced.

Zhang struck gold with a time of 1:26.257 in the final as Turkey’s Muhammed Bozdag (1:26.349) and Japan’s Raito Kida (1:26.478) settled for silver and bronze, respectively.

“Peter was just on the outside of the pack for a little too long,” Krueger said.

“In short track, you want to minimize your stay outside the pack because you’re skipping the longer distance and putting more effort just to stay with the group. That led to the result.”

Krueger, though, believes Groseclose has made promising progress.

“Today was a move going to the right direction. However, I think it could have been a much larger gap between what happened yesterday, so we just have to prepare and talk about tomorrow’s event,” said Krueger. – Rappler.com