Walker and Thomas 11th, But GBR 1 Miss Out After Crash
The young Team GB bobsleigh partnership of Paula Walker and Kelly Thomas finished 11th on their Olympic debut today (Wednesday) – but there was disappointment for Britain’s world champions Nicola Minichiello and Gillian Cooke, whose challenge ended following a crash on their third run.
Minichiello and Cooke went into today’s final two runs in 10th place, one place ahead of Walker and Thomas.
The world champions knew they had to give it everything if they had any chance of making the podium. But their hopes ended when they crashed on their opening run of the day.
Although they crossed the finish line at the end of the run, they were unable to start their fourth run because of a leg injury sustained by Cooke and damage to the sled.
Walker and Thomas were disappointed with their third run time of 54.47. They followed that up with 53.94 on their final run to retain their overnight position of 11th place.
GBR 2 driver Walker said: “This is our first Olympic Winter Games and we’re absolutely over the moon that we’ve come so far. Eleventh is higher than our world ranking.”
GBR 1 driver Minichiello said: “We knew we really had to go for it today and we threw everything into that run. We still believed we could do it, even after yesterday. Unfortunately it didn't pay off.
"We hit corner one again, but the rest of the run was going pretty well until we made a mistake going into 11.
"We didn't do our fourth run today because Gillian hurt her leg in the crash and because the sled was damaged.
"We're devastated by what happened, because so much of our focus has been on these Games," she added.
"It's a tough track, but that's no excuse because it's the same for everyone.
"We were really pleased to see how well Paula and Kelly did today."
Notes to editors:
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