Australian athletes have had one of their most successful starts to a World Cup season, in recent memory. Bree Walker and Sarah Blizzard were back in action, looking to better their 8th place from last week, whilst another Ozzie, Jackie Narracott, looked to kick off her World Cup season after a long awaited off-season.

World Cup Innsbruck: Race 4 - Women’s Skeleton
It was a long off-season for Jackie Narracott as she waited for the lockdown in the United Kingdom to end, however it was well worth the wait. As Jackie was kicking off her world cup season she had a little longer than usual wait, being the 18th athlete off the top. On her first run, Jackie pushed a start time of 5.47 seconds, only two hundredths of a second off her personal best at Igls. Jackie demonstrated her experience, having thirteen races under her belt at the Austrian track, as she began catching the race leaders, curve by curve. With a down time of 53.89 seconds Jackie was sitting in 9th place after her first run, leaving herself only 0.24 seconds outside the medals.

Pushing off for her second heat, Jackie thought it was time to equal her career best start time of 5.45 seconds. Throughout her first two splits, Jackie maintained her lead from the first heat, however she began closing the gap after reaching 120.33km/h and finishing with the 6th fastest time of the heat. 

Jackie wrapped up her first World Cup of the 2020/2021 season with an 8th place, her best result at Igls and the second best result of her career.
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World Cup Innsbruck: Race 4 - Women’s Bobsleigh
Having started her season off with a gold medal and a career best, Bree Walker and Sarah Blizzard were looking to continue their early season success. You didn’t have to wait long for yet another career best by these two ladies, pushing a new record start time of 5.71 seconds. Bree maintained her consistent driving at Igls holding her splits the entire way down track, except for the fourth last curve where she started pulling away, finishing with a down time for heat one of 53.54 seconds. Yet another career best down time for the Igls track.

Sitting in 9th place after their first heat, the duo missed equalling their new push record by only a hundredth of a second. Once again, Bree was able to build up her speed the entire way down the track, reaching 121km/h, which allowed her to maintain her position. By the end of the race, Bree and Sarah achieved their second top 10 result in as many weeks. A brilliant way to end the first half of their season.