A change of coaching and a change in training venue already has made a big difference for short-track speed skater Jordan Malone.

The Denton native kicked off the World Cup season with a pair of top five finishes last month. He placed fourth in the 1,500 meters in the season opener Oct. 21 in Harbin, China, then followed with a fifth-place result in the 1,000 at Kobe, Japan, a week later.

Courtesy photo/Jerry Search

Denton native Jordan Malone, left, competes in a race at the American Cup last month in Midland, Mich. On Malone's right is Shani Davis, a gold medalist at the 2004 Olympics in Turin, Italy.

Those types of showings on the sport’s top world stage have Malone encouraged that his more demanding off-season training regimen is paying dividends.

“It wasn’t bad,” said Malone, who fell in his other two events at the World Cup and did not place. “When things go OK, it shows that I’m able to put up some times. I look more stable this year and I’m a little more agile.”

Malone, 23, has been competing in short track for less than four years after switching over from inline racing, but already has become one of the top skaters in the country.

He is one of a handful of young skaters who has started to close the gap on Apolo Anton Ohno, the Olympic gold medalist who has carried the torch for American short track in recent years.

“Before we had one guy and a bunch who were way behind chasing him,” Malone said of Ohno, who will not compete this season until the U.S. Championships in December. “Now we’ve got a bunch of guys who are young and hungry. The U.S. team has really stepped up.”

In May, the U.S. team relocated from Colorado Springs to Salt Lake City, where it now trains in a new facility. New coach Jae-Su Chun comes to the U.S. team from South Korea, a country that dominates the sport of short track. Chun coached the Korean team in 2003, and will now be with the U.S. team at least through the next Olympics in 2010.

Malone said Chun has demanded physically intense workouts and new technique.

“The intensity and volume really gives you a strong base for the rest of the year,” Malone said. “If you start at a higher level, then you have more to work with.”

In Malone’s case, Chun taught various aspects of race strategy, track patterns and pivoting on turns that Malone said already has made a difference in his speed.

“The main thing that he’s worked with us on is technique,” Malone said. “My smoothness on the ice and my technique has really picked up this year.”

Malone also is adjusting to new equipment this season. The American team has a new blade technician from Canada who has switched the team over to a new type of blade, which is critical in the fast-paced world of short track.

Malone started the season on a positive note at last month’s American Cup in Midland, Mich., which serves as a qualifier for the first four World Cup events of the season and the U.S. Championships.

He currently is preparing for the next two World Cup events, in the Netherlands and Italy, later this month.

After that comes the national championships, which also serve as a qualifier for the final two World Cup events in early 2008, and for the World Championships and World Team Championships that cap the season.

Although Malone’s long-term goals are to reach the medal podium in Vancouver in 2010, he said he would like to spend this season improving his world ranking.

In March, he finished seventh overall at the ISU World Short Track Speed Skating Championships in Milan, Italy, despite competing individually at worlds for the first time. In Milan, he qualified for the finals in three of the four individual distances.

Malone was one of only two American skaters to crack the top eight at Worlds. Now considered a top 10 skater, he hopes to inch into the top three by next spring.

TODD JORGENSON can be reached at 940-566-6871. His e-mail address is tjorgenson@dentonrc.com.