Women's Europa Cup Bobsleigh Race

The final Europa Cup Women?s bobsleigh race prior to Christmas took place at Cesana Pariol in Italy on Thursday 14 December. Cesana is a challenging track and it hosted all the Olympic Ice Sport events back in February. The track consists of 19 corners and is 1435 metres long. 16 crews took part in the 2 heat race. Nicola Minichiello, the GB1 driver returned to racing after a 2 race break. Her brakewoman for the Cesana race was Lauren Therin. In the first heat Nicola and Lauren had a 5.30 second start which was the equal second fastest start of the first heat. Only the Canada I sled beat their start time. Nicola drove the track well and had a finish time of 59.06 seconds. After the first heat Nicola and Lauren were lying in third place behind the Netherlands I sled in second place and the Canada I sled in first place. The GB2 sled consisted of an all Army crew for the first time this season. The sled was piloted by Jackie Davies and her brakewoman was Paula Walker. Paula has just recovered from an injury that has prevented her from racing until now. Both girls are non-commissioned officers from the same military unit in the Royal Signals. Jackie and Paula had a start time of 5.44 seconds which was the fifth fastest start in the first heat and had a finish time of 59.27 seconds. This secured them fourth position after the first heat.

As Jackie and Paula were lying in fourth position after the first run, they took their second run immediately before Nicola and Lauren. They matched their start time from the first heat and Jackie had an outstanding drive down the 19 corner track. She finished in 59.33 seconds which was the fastest run of the second heat. This gave her an overall finish time of 1 minute 58.60 seconds.
In the second run, Nicola and Lauren matched their start time in the first run of 5.30 seconds but unfortunately they had a slower run down the mountain and they finished the second heat in 59.65 seconds. This was the third fastest run of the second heat and they had a cumulative time of 1 minute 58.71 seconds. This put them behind Jackie and Paula. The pressure was now on the Netherlands I sled which finished behind both the GB1 and GB2 sled. The leading Canada I sled maintained their position after the second run which meant that the GB2 sled finished in second place and the GB1 sled finished in third place. This has been an excellent finish to the first half of the season having two British crews on the podium in Italy. Jackie is now lying in joint first position with Kaillie Simundsen of Canada at the top of the Europa Cup Individual Rankings Board. The teams have earned a well deserved break prior to resuming racing in January.