Australia’s three skeleton athletes got their first taste of training action today at the Whistler Sliding Centre.

Under clear blue skies Melissa Hoar, Emma Lincoln-Smith and Anthony Deane each successfully completed two training runs and will now look to gain more familiarity with the course over their final four runs over the coming days.

The skeleton competition for both men and women commences on Day 7 (Thursday 18 February) and all three of the Australians are raring to go and commence their Olympic campaigns.

In the women’s training runs Emma Lincoln-Smith recorded times of 56.30 and 55.66 while Melissa Hoar had runs of 55.42 and 55.54.

Lincoln-Smith had some solid starts to both her runs before losing some time down the track, but was pleased to be finally on the track.

“I was a little nervous the first run, I think I had my head up pretty much past the start of the track,” Lincoln Smith said. “It wasn’t really that aerodynamic but it’s good to get the first run out of the way and get some of the nerves off.

“The second run was better, I had better runners on my sleds, I had more control but a few mistakes but something to work on. I would be worried if I was getting it perfect now. Four more runs and each run I’ve just got to try and improve on the last one.”

Lincoln-Smith said she would have a quiet preparation on Wednesday night.

“My preparation just consists of preparing my sled, having a nice dinner and trying to get to bed at a reasonable time and sew my bib, my competition bib, watch a DVD and just stay calm and relaxed.”

Meanwhile Anthony Deane recorded two very similar runs of 55.77 and 55.68 as he prepares for his first Olympic Games.

Deane showed some good improvement on his second run and is confident going into his two final days of preparation.

“It’s great to be back on here,” Deane said. “I haven’t been on the track for about two weeks now and the time that I did have a couple of weeks ago there were a few issues that I had to fix up and I’ve fixed all them up and haven’t had an issue so feel pretty good about the week to come.

“We’re in the gym each day and in hot and cold tubs just trying to keep our muscles nice and relaxed. The first couple of days in the Village we don’t want to get too overexcited so just trying to stay relaxed and stay cool.”

David Polglase
AOC - Whistler