NZPA - March 9, 2009, 6:34 am

The New Zealand short track speed skating team commenced their World Championship campaign in Vienna yesterday with glimpses of glory in their sight, only to fall agonisingly short.

Mark Jackson, a 2002 Winter Olympics skater, clocked two minutes, 16.63 seconds in the 1500m but his time as ninth fastest was not enough to make it through to the finals.

Blake Skjellerup, who two weeks ago broke the New Zealand record and came close to the world record in the 1500m after skating 2min 12:06sec, broke through the world top 20 in his non-speciality 500m race.

However Skjellerup crashed after an Israeli competitor performed an illegal move, slamming into the crashpads at 53kmh and snapping his collarbone which has put him out of the competition.

"It's devastating, tomorrow, the 1000m, was my preferred event and I was on track to skate something really special.

"It would've been great to bring the results home for New Zealand. The team's build-up has never been so good".

New Zealand's sole female qualifier, Francesca Jackson, skated strongly in her 1500m to a personal best of 2min 33.64sec, an improvement of 10sec on her 2008 time, ranking her 44th in the world.