This week, Olympic Gold Medalist Steven Bradbury was presented the honour of officially announcing the Australian team for the International Skating Union (ISU) World Junior Short Track Speed Skating Championships, taking place in Melbourne from Friday 24th - Sunday 26th February 2012.

The Victorian Minister for Sport and Recreation, The Honourable Mr Hugh Delahunty MP was also in attendance to formally announce funding for the event through the Significant Sporting Events Grant from Sport and Recreation Victoria.

Before it was even completed, in December 2009 Australian Ice Racing won the bid for the first World Junior Short Track Speed Skating Championships event to ever be held in Australia, at the Medibank Icehouse. The last time Australia hosted a World Championship was back in 1991 in Sydney, which also incidentally produced Australia’s first ever World Champions in an Olympic Winter Sport, in the form of the Men’s Relay Team.

The World’s most promising junior skaters, aged 19 years and under, will arrive from 29 countries to compete for the title over four distances during the event.

Australia’s team consists of four young men and three young ladies from around the country. Sixteen-year-old Deanna Lockett leads the team as a potential medalist; her most recent victory achieving a brilliant seventh place overall in the World Cup event in Shanghai, China.

Pierre Boda and Armstrong Lazenby formed part of the Men’s relay team that finished ninth in last December’s World Cup event in Shanghai, China. This result broke the Australian overseas record.

The official Australian team is as follows:

Men
Pierre Boda – Individual Representation
Nathaniel Henry – Individual Representation
Armstrong Lazenby – Individual Representation
Angus McCulloch – Relay Representation

Ladies
Deanna Lockett – Individual Representation
Emma Coxon-Smith – Individual Representation
Sinead Fogarty – Individual Representation

Team Support
Team Leader/National Coach – Ann Zhang
Team Assistant Coach – Margaret (Maggie) Holland
Equipment Technician – Ken Stewart
Team Physiotherapist – Lucy Yan
Team Physiotherapist – Aerin DiLeva