A late night ice hockey thriller and a personal-best performance in short track skating highlights day three for Australia at the Gangwon 2024 Winter Youth Olympic Games.
Ice Hockey – Aussies keep cool, ice game in dying moments
The Australian changeroom at the Gangneung Hockey Centre was the place to be tonight after the women's 3-on-3 team pulled off an exhilarating last gasp 5-4 victory over Mexico in what was a must-win match.
On a day that started with a lopsided 22-1 loss in the afternoon against the top ranked Hungary team, the Aussies took to the ice tonight refocused and built a 2-0 lead on Mexico early in the second period.
Mexico would level the scores shortly after to send the match to the final period all square.
An Australian goal in the 42nd minute was matched by a Mexico goal in the 45th minute and it wasn't until the dying minutes (57th minute) that Mexico edged ahead 4-3. Down but not out, the Aussies immediately fired back with a 58th minute equaliser and finally the winning goal in the 60th minute.
Five rounds into the eight-nation tournament Australia sits *fifth on two wins and three losses (*with two other round five matches to come). The preliminary rounds conclude on Tuesday after Australia take on Turkey at 3:30pm AEDT and China at 10:30pm AEDT. The top four progress to the semi-finals.
Short Track Skating – Aditya achieves second PB of the Games
Aditya Nghiem closed his Games campaign out on a high, cutting one second off his personal best men's 500m time (47.879) to place 31st.
It was the second personal best set at Gangwon 2024 for the 15-year-old from Richlands in Queensland, after finishing the men's 1500m in a time of 2:41.252 for 28th overall.
"My Youth Olympic Games experience was good. I've been training for a while now and moved to Korea for a bit to train," Aditya said. "So I know I've been working hard so I think it made it all worth it. To be able to come to the Youth Olympics and cross the finish line was amazing.
"I was able to gain a lot of experience, meet a lot of good athletes from other sports as well not just mine, so that was pretty interesting.
“I'm excited to keep going with the sport and achieve more and keep getting better.”
Day 4 Schedule
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Gangwon 2024 Winter Youth Olympic Games
Australia's largest ever Winter Youth Olympic Team competed at Gangwon 2024. The 47-strong Australian Team competed across eight disciplines.
