We have room to grow, says head coach of Kazakh speed skating team after success in Japan
At the ISU Four Continents Speed Skating Championships in Hachinohe city, Japan, the Kazakh national speed skating team won big, collecting all types of medals: gold, silver and bronze. In an exclusive interview with Kazinform News Agency, head coach Alexander Pavfilov summed up the team’s results and shared plans for the future.
The current roster of the national speed skating team features 17 athletes, including 9 male and 8 female athletes, with the youngest being 18.
On Day 1 of the ISU Four Continents Speed Skating Championships Team Kazakhstan claimed its first medal, taking bronze in the Team Sprint Women event. Then, Kazakhstani Nadezhda Morozova added silver in the 1000m Women event on the second day of the tournament. Vitaliy Chshigolev added the cherry on top claiming gold in the Mass Start Men event.
“In the long run, we have room to grow. Big picture, [the results of] the first tournament turned out to be OK. Initially, we were aiming for gold. We even missed out on a medal, because the organizers did not allow our women's team to skate. Presently we have a very strong team, we’ve never had three female athletes participating in the race. Young athletes have joined the team. But, since we didn't have licenses before, we didn't compete in these tournaments. Now we will need to compete in the World Cups so that next year we will get a chance to compete at the Four Continents tournament,” said Alexander Panfilov.
In his words, the national team went through rigorous trainings in summer and the qualifying stage determined the final lineup of the national team in October. Vitaliy Chshigolev [Ed. note – gold medalist of the ISU Four Continents Speed Skating Championships in Japan] trained individually with a coach-consultant from Poland.
Panfilov even describes the ISU Four Continents Speed Skating Championships in Japan as a stepping stone in the preparation for the Asian Games.
“This tournament shed light on our potential rivals – Japan, China and South Korea. It gave us a chance to see the dynamics, to draw conclusions. We’ve seen athletes from the U.S. and Canada who are not going to compete at the Asian Games. But, the rest of our potential rivals were here in full armor. We’ve analyzed their performance to see what we are missing,” said the head coach.
The Kazakh national speed skating team can be next seen in action at the 1st stage of the World Cup in Japan and then at the 2nd stage in China.
The goal in sight? To win quotas for the Olympic season. The coaching staff sets high hopes on Nadezhda Morozova, Vitaliy Chshigolev and Yevgeniy Koshkin ranked 4th in the Men 500m event.
