British youngsters win medals in Winter Youth Olympics 2012 in Innsbruck
Last updated 1/30/2012 9:01:13 AM
British youngsters win medals in Winter Youth Olympics 2012 in Innsbruck
Teenager Jack Burrows struck gold in the Winter Youth Olympics in Innsbruck when he was part of the international team who won the 3000 metres mixed team short track speed skating.
The 14 year old Burrows, the youngest member of the GB squad shared his joy withy two Chinese skaters and a Korean and he was followed home by another Brit, Aydin Djemal, who claimed a silver medal.
They were Britain's first medals in the Games. "It means so much to me," said the elated Burrows. "I can now train even harder and look at that medal for motivation.
"I got the medal by hard work. I want to change it for one in Sochi 2014."
Nottingham's Burrows and the 15-year-old Djemal were competing in teams with two male and two female athletes from other countries in an event introduced by International Olympic Committee chief Jacques Rogge.
Rogge, a natural optimist, hopes the event will bring nations closer and help young athletes gain a greater understanding of the "Olympic spirit".
"We want to innovate and give another character to the Youth Games, because it is not just a mini Olympic Games, they are different and the athletes love it," Rogge said.
Epsom's Djemal said: "I'm a bit gobsmacked to be honest because I didn't think at all when I was coming here that I would get a medal.
"I told myself that I had to make sure I learnt and had fun, I've done that as well and got a medal, so I'm just ecstatic at the moment."
Burrows and Djemal, who earlier in the week finished seventh and tenth respectively in the 1000m individual competition, also revealed the novel lengths they had to go to in order to understand their Chinese and Korean coaches who spoke little English.
"In our training sessions we got our laptops out and used Google Translator to speak, so that was a good use of technology and then a few hand signals helped," said Burrows.
Djemal added: 'It was a bit bad for communication, but we seemed to get the message through and clearly it worked."
Elsewhere on the penultimate day of competition in Austria, Team GB ice dancers Millie Paterson and Edward Carstairs finished in fifth place in their mixed-nations team event after an impressive routine.
Team GB Alpine skier Paul Henderson raced in the slalom, his fourth and final event, during heavy snow conditions in Patscherkofel.