Bobsleigh: Gillian Cooke back in team after injury hell

AGAINST all the odds, Capital hero Gillian Cooke has fought her way back from a career-threatening hip injury to win her place in the Great Britain No. 1 bobsleigh for this weekend’s World Championships in Lake Placid, USA.

Pairs World champion three years ago with driver Nicola Minichiello, who herself has since retired through injury, Cooke was chosen for the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver, where the 29-year-old Watsonian was unlucky to crash and suffer a major injury which has resulted in two years of rehab and a battle to regain full fitness.

The twice former Commonwealth Games rep in pole vault and long jump still holds the Scottish indoor long jump record of 6.43m and would have been a clear favourite to take that title and the 60m sprint had she chosen to compete in Glasgow tomorrow.

But now dedicated to her new sport Cooke is back as the pusher behind Britain’s new No.1 driver Paula Walker, confirming her place when the pair finished sixth in an event in Calgary recently.