Australia wins first Bobsleigh World Cup gold medal
World Series Innsbruck: Race 2 - Women’s Mono Bob
Since the introduction of Women’s Mono Bob, our Australian athletes have taken to the discipline faster than most other nations. This weekend was perfect progression to this Australian story with Bree Walker becoming the first Australian sliding sport athlete to come home with a World Cup gold medal.
The fifth sled of the top, Bree pushed a new start record for the Austrian track of 5.86 seconds, before carrying that speed (115.23km/h) to break the previous track record by 0.20 seconds, previously held by Laura Nolte of Germany. Being the last sled off the top in the second run heat Bree was only 0.01 seconds off her own start record. Her time splits were identical through every curve until to start pulling further away from curve 10, until she, once again, broke her track record from heat one, finally winning the World Series event by 0.44 seconds.
Watch the Bree's gold medal performance here.
World Cup Innsbruck: Race 3 - Women’s Bobsleigh
Bree Walker was back in action in the third Women’s Bobsleigh World Cup race of the season, this time with Sarah Blizzard as her brakeman. The duo last competed at Innsbruck, Austria in last season where they finished 16th. The first heat saw them produce a personal best start time of 5.76 seconds, improving by 0.08 seconds from last season. Bree drove consistently in their first heat, leaving herself and Sarah in 5th place leading into the second heat, only 0.68 seconds behind the race leader.
Sarah and Bree displayed their progress on World Cup with yet another personal best start time of 5.75 seconds. Again, Bree was showing her knowledge of the track as she began to close the gap on the four teams ahead of them, until the sled flipped on the second last corner. Despite the late crash, the speed which Bree and Sarah generated from the top carried them to a career best 8th place. These two women have shown their work from the off-season by producing five personal best during the event.
