Australian bobsleigh brakeman Duncan Harvey is continuing to rest and recuperate following his crash with pilot Chris Spring in the second official training run at the Whistler Sliding Centre late on Wednesday night (Vancouver time).

The Australian sled turned on its side at curve five (of 16) leaving Spring and Harvey no option but to tuck into the shell as tightly as possible and take the less-than-pleasant ride to the bottom.

With no way to control the slide, the bob weaved up and down the track and at one point Harvey’s back came into contact with a track wall.

He was taken to the Polyclinic at the Whistler Athletes Village for a complete check up, including x-rays and a CT scan, and walked back to his room - just 200 metres away in the Australian team building - at 2am, about an hour after his teammates had returned from the track.

Spring was unhurt and able to return to the Whistler Sliding Centre on Thursday morning to complete his third and fourth training runs, with Anthony Ryan – a member of the four-man bobsleigh team – taking Harvey’s place in ‘the back seat’.

Both Spring and Ryan and Australia’s other two-man bobsleigh team, Jeremy Rolleston and Duncan Pugh, completed the middle two training runs without incident, leaving them with two more practice runs on Friday morning, ahead of competition on Saturday and Sunday.

“I didn’t see it coming,” Spring said of the previous night’s crash. “When that happens, I just try to tuck in tight and keep my head off the ice and hope my brakeman does too.”

“Seeing (Harvey) this morning was kind of nasty, but he’s a tough guy. He’ll be back up here for sure,” the 25-year-old Darwin native said of his roommate and teammate.

“There’s no cuts or bleeding, he just has some issues with his lower back. Hopefully they’ll clear him for tomorrow. If not, I’ll use Anthony again,” Spring explained.

Meanwhile Harvey was receiving some physiotherapy treatment and resting as much as possible, hoping to be able to return to action on Friday.

“I’m 30 to 40 per cent better than I was last night, so given another 16 hours or so, I could be right,” Harvey said.

“The thing is it’s hard to know how I’ll be on Saturday afternoon, and if I’m not sure whether I can do my job as well as I want to, it’ll be a tough decision,” the Sydney-based 28-year-old added.

Murray Brust
AOC - Whistler