BOBSLEIGH: The Australian Bobsleigh teams have had another successful week of competiting at the Park City leg of the 2017 North American Cup, continuing their hunt for PyeongChang 2018 qualification. 

Aussie men's pilot, Lucas Mata had a full on weekend schedule, competiting in both two-man and four-man races. Mata finished 11th while racing with team mate Hayden Smith and 8th in race two alongside Lachlan Reidy. 

The men's crew then followed up with a 7th and 8th place finish in the four-man races. 

"We had a great week of training," Mata said.

"The races were against some tough competition with some top World Cup sleds coming down to compete.

"However it was great to see how we matched up. We didn’t return with any hardware but had some great positives and this team is really coming together and building towards February," said the 29-year-old from Western Australian. 

Meanwhile in the women's event, Bree Walker piloted her crew to a 16th place finish with Mikayla Dunn, followed by a 14th alongside Ashleigh Werner. 

"Park City was a huge success in our books," Walker said. 

"This was the first time any of us had slid on this track and I am more then proud of how we pulled it together as a team to produce some solid results."

In both races the girls were able to produce personal best push start times and down times, an impressive feat after having only four days of training on the American track.

Walker said the hard work and commitment of both herself and her teammates is starting to pay off. 

"I’m so proud of the progress that our team has made over the last month of sliding," Walker said.

"We have all come a long way in terms of our team dynamic and our athletic ability and we plan to continue in this direction as we head to the second half of our season in Europe."

The Aussie crews now head to Europe to continue chasing qualification standards and quota spots ahead of the PyeongChang 2018 Olympic Games. 

Ash Knight
olympics.com.au