History was made under lights at the Cortina Sliding Centre on Friday as Australia fielded two teams in the Olympic 2-Woman Bobsleigh for the first time, with both combinations building momentum from heat one to heat two.
For returning Olympians Bree Walker and Kiara Reddingius, night one of competition was about execution and belief.
The pair exploded from the blocks in the first run, producing one of the fastest start times in the field to move into 11th place.
They then recorded the seventh-fastest second run to break into the top 10 and set up their final day of competition tomorrow.
“Super, super happy with today,” Walker said afterwards. “Training was good throughout the week and that really built my confidence coming in here, knowing I could lay down some really good runs.
“Kiara set me up with a great start, with a really huge push start.
“So yeah, we’re really happy with how today went.
“All we wanted to do was come here and push our best, I wanted to drive my best, and have the best setup we could. I think we’ve done that.”
While Walker and Reddingius have Olympic experience from Beijing 2022, it was a very different emotion for Sarah Blizzard and Desi Johnson, who launched into their Games debut earlier.
With family gathered in the start house, the moment hit as soon as they crossed the finish line for the first time with the realisation they were officially Olympians.
Sitting 22nd after the first run, and with the emotion of their Olympic debut settled, the pair applied their learnings in the second heat to produce a strong response.
Going into the provisional lead, Blizzard and Johnson watched on from the leader’s box as back-to-back crews failed to surpass them, eventually finishing the second run in 19th place.
“I knew I could make improvements from the first run and I did,” Blizzard said. “But there’s more in me.”
Both crews return on Saturday night for the final two heats. Run three will be contested in current place order, while only the top 20 sleds will advance to the fourth and deciding heat, which will run from slowest to fastest.
Now inside the top 20 required for that fourth run, Blizzard and Johnson know they must be at their best to maintain or improve their position - and believe they can.
“Build from here,” Blizzard said. “Reset tomorrow and do it again.”
The sentiment was echoed by Walker and Reddingius as they look to push further into the top 10.
“We’ve just got to go back tomorrow and go again,” Walker said. “We’ll take the learnings from today and see if we can keep building.
“It’s going to be a great battle… we just keep building from here.”
For returning Olympians Bree Walker and Kiara Reddingius, night one of competition was about execution and belief.
The pair exploded from the blocks in the first run, producing one of the fastest start times in the field to move into 11th place.
They then recorded the seventh-fastest second run to break into the top 10 and set up their final day of competition tomorrow.
“Super, super happy with today,” Walker said afterwards. “Training was good throughout the week and that really built my confidence coming in here, knowing I could lay down some really good runs.
“Kiara set me up with a great start, with a really huge push start.
“So yeah, we’re really happy with how today went.
“All we wanted to do was come here and push our best, I wanted to drive my best, and have the best setup we could. I think we’ve done that.”
While Walker and Reddingius have Olympic experience from Beijing 2022, it was a very different emotion for Sarah Blizzard and Desi Johnson, who launched into their Games debut earlier.
With family gathered in the start house, the moment hit as soon as they crossed the finish line for the first time with the realisation they were officially Olympians.
Sitting 22nd after the first run, and with the emotion of their Olympic debut settled, the pair applied their learnings in the second heat to produce a strong response.
Going into the provisional lead, Blizzard and Johnson watched on from the leader’s box as back-to-back crews failed to surpass them, eventually finishing the second run in 19th place.
“I knew I could make improvements from the first run and I did,” Blizzard said. “But there’s more in me.”
Both crews return on Saturday night for the final two heats. Run three will be contested in current place order, while only the top 20 sleds will advance to the fourth and deciding heat, which will run from slowest to fastest.
Now inside the top 20 required for that fourth run, Blizzard and Johnson know they must be at their best to maintain or improve their position - and believe they can.
“Build from here,” Blizzard said. “Reset tomorrow and do it again.”
The sentiment was echoed by Walker and Reddingius as they look to push further into the top 10.
“We’ve just got to go back tomorrow and go again,” Walker said. “We’ll take the learnings from today and see if we can keep building.
“It’s going to be a great battle… we just keep building from here.”
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