Bree Walker has come agonisingly close to a medal at the IBSF World Championships in Winterberg, Germany, missing the podium by just 0.07 seconds.

The fourth place result matches her previous best finish at a World Championships, where she had the same result last year in St Moritz, Switzerland, which is again the best ever result by an Australian bobsleigh athlete at a World Championships.

In the four run championship format, the QAS athlete performed well in her first three runs, highlighted by an exceptional third run where she had the second fastest run of the round.

Heading into the final run ranked second overall, Walker unfortunately had a mistake halfway down the run which made it difficult to recover enough speed to make the podium, and registered the seventh fastest time of the final run.
Walker finished with a four run combined time of 3:55.07 seconds, with the victory going to Laura Nolte of Germany in 3:54.77, Elana Meyers Taylor of the USA was second in 3:54.95 and German Lisa Buckwitz rounded out the podium in third with 3:55.00.

Also in action for Australia making her World Championship debut was Sarah Blizzard, who finished in 23rd place.

“It was a really tight race, and I knew it was going to be really tough and I was ready for that,” said the 31-year-old Olympian from Cairns.

“We did absolutely everything possible and left nothing to chance, I know how to execute a medal winning performance, so I just had to go out and do that, and unfortunately I just missed it, it hasn’t quite set in, but I am pretty heartbroken.”

“I made a mistake in that final run in a really important spot, and it cascaded down. You can’t make a mistake with these girls, everyone is driving so well and I ultimately paid the price and dropped to fourth.”

“My team is amazing, my coach goes above and beyond and I can’t thank Pierre (Lueders) enough for everything that he is teaching me, he is doing such a fantastic job coaching and running our team, it’s so professional.”

Next weekend sees the two-woman bobsleigh World Championship event take place at Winterberg on March 2-3, with Walker to be joined by brakewoman Kiara Reddingius. Sarah Blizzard will also be competing together with her brakewoman Desi Johnson.

“We have the two-woman coming up, and I am excited to get in and get going with that. The goal is to execute a really good race, the last time I competed in that event at the World Championships was in 2020 in Altenberg at my first World Championships, so I am excited to get in the sled and do that with Kiara next week.”

Alex Ferlazzo has recorded a new World Cup personal best, finishing in eighth place at the FIL World Cup event in Sigulda, Latvia.

The result improves on his previous best of tenth, which he recorded earlier in the season in Whistler, Canada.

The three-time Olympian commenced his week in Sigulda by qualifying for the World Cup event in the Nation's Cup by finishing in fifth place.

In the World Cup event, Ferlazzo had the 11th fastest time in the opening round in a time of 48.557 seconds, and then improved significantly in run two to have the sixth fastest time of the round, finishing in a time of 48.023 seconds.

His two run time was 1:36.580 seconds, giving him a final ranking of eighth, 0.930 seconds behind event winner Felix Loch of Germany.

A sprint World Cup also took place in Sigulda, with Ferlazzo finishing in 14th.

Ferlazzo commented after his performance in Sigulda.

“I am happy with my result today here is Sigulda. The circuit has never seen it built like this before, wide open transitions and glassy ice on the most technical demanding track made for some wild racing.

“Eighth is my best World Cup result and even managed a PB down time!

“Looking to knuckle down and make the most of these track conditions for the last race of the season!"
A second World Cup will take place next weekend in Sigulda, the final event of the FIL World Cup season.

Doug Crawford and Liam Michael have competed in the ski cross World Cup in Reiteralm, Austria, with a double event taking place.

In his final World Cup event of the season, Crawford was unable to make the top-32 man finals, finishing in 49th place and 54th after the qualifying time trial.

Michael finished his qualifying runs in 50th and 51st place.

The next Ski Cross World Cup will take place in Veysonnaz, Switzerland, on March 15-17.

Brendan Corey has competed in the final ISU World Cup of the season in Gdansk, Poland, with his best finish coming in the 1000m, where he finished 14th int he quarter-final round.

The 2022 Olympian also competed in the 500m (1) event, finishing in 27th place.

Also in action for Australia was Lucas Wareham in the 500m (2) in 33rd place, and 36th in the 1500m.

The ISU World Championships are a month away in Seoul, Korea, from March 15-17.

Three-time Olympian Alex Ferlazzo has competed in Oberhof, Germany for the second week of FIL World Cup action, improving to a 13th place finish.

Last week at the first World Cup on the German track, Ferlazzo finished in 22nd place in a race impacted by mild conditions and a deteriorating track which disadvantaged the athletes running later in the field.

Ferlazzo first took part in the Nation's Cup qualifying event on Friday, where he advanced through in fourth place, securing an early starting position in the World Cup draw.

In the first World Cup heat, Ferlazzo had the 13th fastest run before improving to the 12th fastest time in the second heat, and finished with a total time of 1:26.917, 0.884 seconds behind event winner Jonas Mueller of Austria.

The top-15 finishers from the main event also qualified to take part in the sprint World Cup in Oberhof held the next day, with Ferlazzo finishing in 14th place.

After the event Ferlazzo, reflected on his two weeks competing in Oberhof.

"It's a bit of a different one compared to last week event. Last week the weather made the race so ridiculous, but this week the ice actually held up, and I took the opportunity to test some things in the first few training sessions, but today

I just went back to what I knew, knowing the ice would be ok.

"Overall I am happy with my race, the speed was missing a little bit here, but I always seem to struggle finding it on this track in particular, but I am sitting in 13th and happy to snag a top-15 position."

"We have two World Cup events coming up on one of my favourite track in Latvia, I am really looking forward to it."

Competing in the last event before the 2024 IBSF World Championships, Bree Walker has finished in seventh place in the monobob on the difficult track in Altenberg, Germany, which saw many of her rivals crash.

In the first run Walker had mistakes, and finished in 1:01.43 seconds which was the ninth fastest time of the round.
In the second run, Walker dramatically improved to have the fastest time in the field of 16, finishing in an impressive time of 1:00.55 seconds.

Her two run combined time was 1:01.98, which put her 0.69 seconds behind event winner, 2022 Olympic two-woman bobsleigh champion Laura Nolte of Germany, with Elana Meyers-Taylor in second and another German, Lisa Buckwitz rounding out the podium in third place.

Walker and brakewoman Kiara Reddingius elected not to compete in the two-woman, in order to prepare for the World Championships which commences next weekend in Winterberg, Germany, with monobob scheduled for February 24-25 and two-woman on March 1-2.

With one World Cup monobob event remaining in the season on March 22 in Lake Placid, USA, Walker is in fourth place on the World Cup rankings with 1324 points, trailing American Kaysha Love in third place on 1332. German sliders are ranked first and second, with Buckwitz leading on 1468 points and Nolte second with 1355 points.

“Altenberg can be a challenging place but I like a challenge so I went into last week ready for it,” said the 31-year-old Olympian from Queensland.

“I had a good feeling about the race but unfortunately in the first heat I made a mistake in the straight-a-way (again) which cost me so much speed. In the second heat I fixed it to lay down the fastest run of the heat.”

“Bittersweet as I know what my potential is in Altenberg but have to accept that is racing sometimes.”

“I walk away still feeling positive and proud of how much I have improved here over the last two seasons and we go onto the next one.”

Bree Walker pushing out of the start gate in Altenberg
IMAGE - Viesturs Lacis Rekords

2022 Olympian Brendan Corey has competed in the ISU Short Track Speed Skating World Cup event in Dresden, Germany, with his best result coming in the 1000m (2) placing 14th.

Corey also competed in the 1500m event, but received a penalty in the quarterfinals ending his competition.

Also competing for Australia in the men's event was Lucas Wareham who finished 46th in the 500m and 42nd in the 1000m (1).

Corey commented on his Instagram account after the competition.

"Not my greatest weekend of racing, time to go again smarter next week."

The Short Track athletes will now travel to Gdansk, Poland, where the next World Cup will take place on February 16-18. The ISU World Championships are a month away in Seoul, Korea, from March 15-17.

The Mixed Doubles Players Championship has taken place in Brantford, Ontario, Canada, with Beijing 2022 Olympians Dean Hewitt and Tahli Gill finishing in equal second place in their pool group stage, and only narrowly missing advancing to finals in a tie-break.

With twenty highly rated Curling teams taking part, the format was determined by four round robin pool matches with a finals series to follow for the best placed pairs.

Gill and Hewitt finished with a record of two wins and two losses in the group stage, drawn in Pool D.

Round Robin Matches
Vs Powers/Saunders - Loss 4 to 6
Vs Spruit/Spruit - Win 9 to 1
Vs Sandham/Tuck - Loss 3 to 5
Vs Martin/Laycock - Win 9 to 4

The competition in Brantford also took place near the Toronto headquarters of long-term OWIA and Australian Olympic Team Uniform official uniform and apparel partner Schure Sports, the company behind Karbon, Gill and Hewitt had the opportunity to meet a senior member of the Karbon family in person.

After the event Hewitt commented.

"We had a great week training in Toronto last week. It was fantastic being able to meet and get to know Peter Schure from Karbon and Schure Sports. It’s so great having Karbon supporting us with uniforms to train and compete in, especially to keep us warm when it drops to -40 like it did a few weeks ago.

"We finished the Players Championship at 2:2 which was just short of qualifying for playoffs."

"We let two games slip in the final end that we usually wouldn’t so we’re learning from those and will come back stronger."

"We’ve now got a week off before we get back into our last training block before we head to World Championships."

IMAGE - Tahli Gill and Dean Hewitt with Peter Schure from Schure Sports and Karbon
PHOTO BY - Chris Hocking/OWIA

Bobsleigh pilot Bree Walker and brakewoman Kiara Reddingius have taken part in a triple World Cup event in Sigulda, Latvia, with the difficult track causing havoc for many of the teams and sleds from all countries.

First up was a two-woman race, with Walker and Reddingius achieving their best result of the weekend in fifth place, just 0.67 seconds behind the event winners Kim Kalicki and Leonie Fiebig of Germany.

On day two Walker competed in the monobob, finishing in ninth, 1.15 second behind German pilot Lisa Buckwitz in first place.

The third and final day featured another two-woman World Cup, with Walker and Reddingius finishing the first run in seventh.

Unfortunately in the second run, the pair had a fall in the bottom section of the Sigulda track, causing the sled to slide across the line on its side, putting them in 13th place.

The next World Cup will take place in Altenberg, Germany, on February 17-18.