BOBSLEIGH: Australian women’s Bobsleigh team, Astrid Radjenovic and Jana Pittman, have placed 14th at the Sochi Olympic Winter Games, equaling the best result by an Australian women’s team at the Olympics.

The pair started the second day of competition with an ‘unlucky’ 59.06 seconds after hitting the Luge wall off corner two. They dropped to 15^th place before they responded well with a 58.37s in run 4. It was their best run of the Olympics, the eighth fastest final run and they reclaimed 14^th position from the Austrians.

The 31-year-olds, who have been friends since they were track athletes as teenagers, have only been sliding together for just over a year. For pilot Radjenovic this was her third Games and for brakewoman Pittman she is still learning about the sport after being a phenomenal hurdler before injuries halted that career.

Neither of the girls knew when they would slide again. Pumped up after this experience Pittman was more enthusiastic about continuing on to the next winter Olympics in Korea in 2018.

“I’d love to go another one I really love this sport,” Pittman said with a beaming smile. “It all really depends on Astrid or if we have another pilot. I can’t step into the pilot role, I would love to but I’m studying medicine and I’ve got a kid so it’s not possible. I’ve only been doing it for a year and I think I’ve got a lot of growth to do and a lot more to learn but I need someone like Astrid to pilot. So we’ll need to wait and see.”

Pittman said her body was suited to the sport and she hadn’t had a single injury since starting training 18 months ago. She was forever injured in athletics.

Radjenovic was the pilot with Kylie Reed back in 2006 when they were 14^th as Australia’s first female bobsleigh team. At Vancouver 2010 she and Cecilia McIntosh were 19^th,

“I’ll definitely have a season off and give my body a rest. I’ve been flogging my body for 10 years in bobsleigh,” Radjenovic said. “I’ll have a look and see what development athletes might be coming up after these Games. If someone really takes to the piloting and does well then I might move into coaching and if no-one pops up then you never know maybe I’ll come back.”

Pittman didn’t rule out a return to athletics and a tilt at Rio 2016.

“Lolo Jones is doing it (Summer and Winter) so I couldn’t rule it out, we’ll just need to wait and see.”

Pittman wasn’t sure if she would return to the 400m hurdles or another event. She has put on over 10 kilograms to get powerful enough to be competitive with the world’s best brakewomen.

“It’s a big body change but let’s get through these Olympics first.”

Pittman was confident she could shred the weight and described herself as being very lean with a lot of muscle.

“I think if you were to do it (returning to athletics) the key would be to start doing 1s (100m) and 2s (200m) for a while and go from there.”

Pittman was only 17 at the Sydney Games. At Athens in 2004 she had an injury hampered preparation and the pressure of being the world champion. Her Beijing campaign, again as the world champion, and London 2012 campaign were ruined by injury.

Sochi 2014 has been her most enjoyable Olympic experience.

“It’s been amazing. Especially that last run,” Pittman said. “I thought I would have been more pumped up but for some reason that thing popped into my head ‘oh my gosh I’m at the Olympic Games’ and I stopped to enjoy it for just a second.

“I’ve been to so many Olympics and now as you get older you start to appreciate how lucky you are to be in this position. I thought I was done so to be able to stand at the Olympics with one of my best mates has been amazing. I really am glad I stopped to think about it.”

After a better push start Radjenovic was able to relax for the drive and let the sled do the work in run 4.

“That’s one of the difficult things with being a pilot. You’ve got to be really pumped up for the push and then you’ve got to be relaxed for the steering.

“It comes down to experience, I’ve been doing this for a long time. It’s one of my things that after a bad run I always come back with a cracker!”

The pairs best result coming in was 12^th at the St Moritz World Cup. They initially were hoping that buying a new sled for their Olympic campaign ‘funded by the Australian public’ through donations, would have got them to the top six but they readjusted those expectations before the Games. If they had produced four runs like their final one then a top 10 would have been realistic.

Canadians Kaillie Humphries and Heather Morse defended their gold from Vancouver in dramatic fashion. They were second by the top American team of Elana Meyers and Lauryn Williams for the whole competition until the last run. Their 57.92s was 21 hundredths of second quicker than the Americans and they won Gold by 0.10 seconds.

Meyers was a bronze medallist at the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Games. Williams was previously a track star winning Silver in the 100m at Athens 2004 and Gold in the 4x100m relay at London 2012. The Bronze was won by USA-2 with pilot Jamie Greubel. Two time Olympic 100m hurdles finalist Lolo Jones was the brakewoman for USA 3 which placed 11^th.