BOBSLEIGH: It was an impressive ‘warm up’ for the Australian women’s bobsleigh team over the weekend. The squad was in Park City (USA) competing in the North America’s Cup, their first event of the 2013/14 season. 

Striving to compete in her third Olympic Games in the sport of bobsleigh, pilot Astrid Radjenovic partnered with two time former hurdling World Champion Jana Pittman to kick start the squad’s Olympic qualification campaign. 

In the first official event of the season, Radjenovic and Pittman finished sixth in a field of 17 teams, just 1.02 seconds behind the race winners Elana Meyers and Aja Evans of the United States after the combined time of the two runs.  

“We placed 6th today in our first Americas Cup race in Park City Utah,” 31-year-old Radjenovic said after the race. “We were 4th after the first run, but were edged out by two sleds by 0.01 sec in the second run!!”

Disappointed with some of the equipment, Radjenovic was really pleased with Pittman’s performance, who recorded a push time of 5.40 seconds in the first run and 5.33 seconds in the second.  

“Our runners didn't like the snow much today, so we felt a little robbed!” she said.

“Jana Pittman pushed two very strong push times with me today, and its Ebony Gorincu's turn tomorrow to show what she can do.”

Twenty-four-year-old Gorincu moved into the brakewoman’s seat the following day. 

“We finished in 9th place today in the second America's cup, with Ebony Gorincu on the brakes,” Radjenovic posted on Facebook after the event. 

The women were up against the USA team of Elana Meyers and former Indoor World Champion hurdler Lolo Jones, which eventually recorded the fastest time of the Cup with a time of 1:39.19 seconds. 

On the third and final day of competition, Radjenovic was reunited with Pittman.

The women were just outside of the top three, finishing in fourth place with a time of 1:40.23 seconds, just 0.92 seconds behind the race leaders Jamie Greubel and Aja Evans of the United States. 

“We are still working on tweaking our equipment to prepare for World Cup, but we feel our results this week were encouraging,” Radjenovic said.  

“Jana and Ebony were troopers this week to help me get through six days of sliding/racing in a row... Great job girls.”

The squad now travels to Calgary for the first World Cup of the season, where their Olympic qualification begins in earnest.

Radjenovic must ensure she earns enough points during the World Cup season to be in the Top 40 women on the FIBT ranking list released on 19 January 2014, to secure her spot at the Sochi Games.