British duo aiming to slay Whistler

Published on Monday 22 February 2010 23:34

FOR Nicola Minichiello, Great Britain's first bobsleigh world champion for 44 years, timing is everything and so far in her career she has proved spot on.

Twelve months ago she and Scottish brakewoman Gillian Cooke went to Lake Placid for the world championships having not won a race all season but came good to win gold, the first British crew to achieve the feat since Tony Nash and Robin Dixon in 1965.

Fast forward a year and they arrived at Whistler's Sliding Centre this week after a poor World Cup season which ended with Minichiello needing urgent eye surgery. Hardly ideal preparation to take on the 90mph corners of the world's most demanding track but Sheffield's Minichiello believes things are clicking into place.

"It has been a challenging season but it's always been all about the Olympics," said the 31-year-old driver, who also competed at Salt Lake City and Turin.

"It's like last season when we didn't win a race but it was all about the world championships. We are putting the building blocks in place and we're in the best shape of our lives."

Minichiello's best run in training has been eighth out of the 21 sleds, but she has started to fathom out the mysteries of Whistler's 16 blood-curdling corners.

"We are cleaning up the track corner by corner," she said. "The first run had we had a problem in four, six and seven but we are ironing out the mistakes and getting the timing right.

"It's all about timing and rhythm, as soon as you get that, you find the heartbeat of the track."

The first two runs are scheduled for today with the medals decided tomorrow.

Cooke, a former international pole vaulter from Edinburgh who was introduced to Minichiello via social networking website Facebook, said the Whistler track presented unique challenges. "It's the ultimate track and the start is quite a bit steeper than other tracks so it's quite hard just to keep your leg speed up to keep pushing," said Cooke who received some unwanted exposure recently when her trousers split at the start of a race.

"At the time I was mortified," she said. "But it raised the profile of the sport right before the Olympics. It was funny, a giggle, but now we're back to focusing on our ultimate aim."

The Whistler track certainly demands total concentration.

"It's so fast," Cooke said. "The corners come at you so fast but that makes it really exciting.

"We have the confidence, we know we have the start, we know we have the drive and we know we have the equipment so hopefully that will all come together."

Britain's second sled driven by Paula Walker crashed in Sunday's training session.

"We crashed where nobody else crashes and went from ten to the finish on our heads....not a pleasant experience. Maybe they'll re-name that one Paula's Corner," she said.

It was one of several crashes in the past week which have prompted officials to make changes to problematic sections of the track. Concern focused on a section of track near the 13th turn and, after a meeting with representatives from 11 sliding nations, officials opted to shave a small amount of ice from that curve and from several other areas.