Australian skeleton athlete Michelle Steele has continued her extraordinary climb up the ranks of the sport, finishing in fourth place in a World Cup in Igls, Austria.

Steele piloted her sled to the third fastest time in the opening run, just four hundredths of a second behind race leader and world champion Maya Pedersen of Switzerland.

In the second run, the Bundaberg 19-year-old produced the fifth fastest time for an overall total of 1 minute 52.11 seconds, 11 hundredths of a second behind eventual winner Carla Pavan of Canada.

Pavan's team-mate Melissa Hollingsworth-Richards took the silver medal with Pederson claiming bronze. The second member of the Australian World Cup touring team, Melissa Hoar, placed 16th, 1.31 seconds behind the winner.

After finishing in sixth place in her debut World Cup in Calgary, Canada, last month, Steele is now ranked ninth in the world, but she gained no points from the second round in Lake Placid while team-mates Emma Lincoln-Smith and Bindee Johnston competed.

More importantly, Australia sits in sixth position on the Nations' Cup standings on 105 points, with Canada leading the field on 171 points. A top eight Nation's Cup placing will guarantee Australia one spot in the 15-woman skeleton field at the Torino 2006 Games.

In the men's event a day earlier, Torino aspirant Shaun Boyle had finished in 31st place. Australia's women bobsleigh athletes were also competing in Igls, Astrid Loch-Wilkinson and Kylie Reed finishing in 18th place, 1.96 seconds behind the winning time of Germany's Sandra Kiriasis and Berit Wiacker.

Loch Wilkinson and Reed remain at 18th place on the World Cup standings. Australia's number two sled of Danielle Lynch and Abby Lewtas placed 27th. The next skeleton World Cup will be held in Sigulda, Latvia, on December 14th, with Lincoln-Smith and Johnston representing Australia.