A week after Australia's number one ranked skeleton athlete Michelle Steele finished one place off the podium in a World Cup race in Igls, Austria, the country's number two slider Emma Lincoln-Smith has missed a top ten finish by just one spot in a World Cup in Sigulda, Latvia.

Lincoln-Smith piloted her sled to a total time of one minute 53.25 seconds for the two run event, 2.14 seconds behind the winning run total of Swiss gold medallist and reigning world champion Maya Pedersen..

Lincoln-Smith's team-mate Bindee Johnston missed a start in the second run, finishing in 25th place on her first journey down the Sigulda track.

An Australian berth in the 15-woman Torino Olympic field is dependant on the country finishing in the top eight on the Nations' Cup points table, and Lincoln-Smith's performance in the fourth World Cup event on the calendar has enhanced that prospect, maintaining the AIS team's current ranking of sixth in the world on 131 points, a comfortable 44 points clear of seventh-placed Japan and 53 ahead of New Zealand.

The next event is in Konigssee, Germany, on January 12.