Australian bobsleigh and skeleton athletes have continued their strong performances in North America, with two gold medals and another bronze the return from the weekend’s America’s Cup competition in Calgary, as ABSA Secretary General Murray Turner outlines in this edited report:
Australian bobsleigh and skeleton athletes have continued their strong performances in North America, with two gold medals and another bronze the return from the weekend’s America’s Cup competition in Calgary, as ABSA Secretary General Murray Turner outlines in this edited report:
Men’s skeleton athlete Anthony Deane secured his first gold medal with an outstanding 0.74 second victory over Korea’s Ho Cho and Canadian Ryan Good, then carried his winning form into the season’s fifth race, blitzing US slider Kyle Tress by 1.44 seconds to secure his second gold medal.
Fellow Australian John Farrow collected his fourth consecutive top 10 finish, finishing in 10th place in the opening Calgary event, but fell back to 14th place in his second journey down the ice.
This is a great result and should see at least one male skeleton athlete reaching the Vancouver Games. The Association will now be working to try and secure a second spot as we are currently only five points away for it.
Two-man bobsledders Chris Spring and Duncan Pugh continued to impress, securing their first podium finish of the season with a bronze medal, finishing just 1.04 seconds behind winner Serge Despres of Canada and Nicolae Istrate of Romania. Other Australians Jeremy Rolleston and Duncan Harvey paired to finish eighth, while Travis Sheehy and Shane McKenzie finished in 14th position.
In their best four-man outing, the team of Jeremy Rolleston, Stuart Trevallion, Duncan Harvey and Anthony Ryan drove to seventh place, while Travis Sheehy and his team of Beau Lewis, Jason Oliveri and Heath Spence crashed on their first run in corner 12.
Two-man pilot Chris Spring stepped up to fill in for an injured Beau Lewis in the second run to finish 14th overall in the 17 sled field.
It looks likely that two 2-man teams will represent Australia at the 2010 Olympic Winter Games, something that last occurred in 1988 on the same Canadian track.
Women’s team members Astrid Loch-Wilkinson and Cecilia McIntosh continued to impress, collecting two fourth placings over the weekend. All the pair need do now is finish inside the top 40 on the FIBT rankings and Australia will be able to apply for continental representation at the Games.
