BOBSLEIGH: Looking to finish in the top 20 at the Sochi 2014 Olympics, Australia’s 4-man Bobsleigh team put together two consistent runs on the opening night of the event.

Pilot Heath Spence, Duncan Harvey, Lucas Mata and Gareth Nichols sit 22^nd on the leaderboard, after posting a first run time of 56.20 seconds and clocking 56.21 seconds on the second run.

The team were calm and confident at the end of the night, happy with a difference of only one hundredth of a second between the two runs.

“I think if we can put it all together tomorrow we can go into the top 20,” Spence said.

“We’re not feeling too bad. If you look up on the time board there it’s close. It is really really close and we’re going to have to lay down a really good run just to crack those extra spots and get into the top 20.”

Sitting +1.38 seconds ahead of the Australians, Russia-1 are in the gold medal position after the first two runs. They set a track record of 54.28 seconds in heat 1, clocking more than 139km/h to take the lead.

The Latvian team is currently in second place, while Germany-1 is third.

Having placed eighth in the first heat, Canada-3 crashed in heat 2. As the sled flipped into a curve and overturned there were audible gasps from the crowd. The audience cheered the four crew members as they thankfully appeared unscathed and walked the rest of the track.

Men’s 2-man gold medallist and pilot of the Russia-1 4-man team, Alexander Zubkov said he expected a strong challenge for medals from the other teams.

"A huge amount of work has been done. Our rivals are very serious and tomorrow [Sunday] will be a very difficult race. The team is ready,” he said.

"I'm happy how the team worked at the start. We will fight until the very end. It is a serious competition and a serious race.

"The race will be decided in the first heat tomorrow."

Harvey said the Russian team were dominating the track in front of the home crowd.  

“It’s unbelievable. We’re not even sure how they went that fast. Two days ago they were four tenths of a second in front of us and then they started doing 54 seconds tops,” he said.

The 32-year-old said the team wouldn’t watch a video of the night’s runs, instead they would all head straight to bed.

“We’ve still got to polish runners for tomorrow. I don’t know when we’re doing that. It’ll be a pretty quick turnaround so we won’t be doing much tonight,” he said.

For Mata, nothing could stop him enjoying his Olympic debut.

“As a team we had a pretty tough start of the season but now we’re working really well as a team so it’s all positives and we’re having good drives and it’s just the positive atmosphere,” he said.

“There are setbacks here and there, but you know that’s what happens.

“The Aussies, the setbacks, we’re the underdogs. But we love it. We love every minute of it.”

The 28-year-old said he appreciated all the fan messages he had received.

“It’s been amazing. I’ve read all of them and the support’s been absolutely unbelievable,” he said.

“I’m speechless. The amount of support I’ve been getting makes me feel like I’m meant to be here, representing Australia, because they’re all behind me.”

All teams will have one run on Day 16 at 8.30pm (AEDT), the last day of Sochi Olympic competition. Teams that finish in the top 20 will then have a fourth and final run.