BOBSLEIGH: In an effort that replicated that of a fabled Disney tale Australia’s Heath Spence and Duncan Harvey have performed admirably to finish the two-man Bobleigh competition in 26th.
BOBSLEIGH: In an effort that replicated that of a fabled Disney tale Australia’s Heath Spence and Duncan Harvey have performed admirably to finish the two-man Bobleigh competition in 26th.
“If you look on the timesheet we are only team from the Southern Hemisphere,” said Olympic debutant and pilot Spence.
“We’re different. Just like the Jamaicans are different, we’re also different. They look at us and realise that we are from so far away and ask themselves what are they doing here.”
What they were doing was making their nation proud.
The Australians left their best run to last to sit 0.4 seconds outside the top 20 to miss out on progressing to Run 4 where the medals are decided.
Olympic debutant Spence piloted the crew to a time of 57.78 in their third run to finish with a time of 2:53.73, 4.83 seconds off leaders Russia 1.
The pair sat in 28th place after their opening run with a time of 57.96 before moving up the leaderboard to 26th after a better drive in deteriorating conditions.
Spence and Harvey consolidated their place on Monday night and their steady progression was something to smile about.
“It was still not as fast as our training times unfortunately which is probably attributed to the ice conditions,” said Spence.
“In a sense if I am using that as a springboard to the four man in two days time then I am really happy that I am comfortable in all the corners, comfortable with the track and I know where I made my mistakes.”
The pair will now join Lucas Mata and Gareth Nichols to push for Australia’s best ever result in the four-man bobsleigh due to start on Saturday.
“I strongly prefer the four-man – the sled is newer, the equipment is newer, the team’s good, our results have been better in the four-man as opposed to the two-man.
“I always live for the four-man, but you cannot really do it without doing the two-man.”
The Australians got out of their sled to a huge ovation as Spence held up a message to the adoring Russian crowd.
“It quite simply says ‘live your dream’. People have been telling me I have been living the dream, you’ve gone out there you’ve made it and you’ve done what you wanted to do.
“The other side says thank you in Russian to thank all the locals that have been really receptive, understanding and friendly to us and I just wanted to say thanks to them.”
The locals had more to cheer about after the final run with Russia-1 claiming the gold medal ahead of Switzerland-1 and USA-1.
