BBA NEWS

January 2008

Happy New Year and welcome to the first issue for 2008 of the British Bobsleigh Association’s newsletter.

We’d like to thank all our sponsors and members for all their support in 2007.  January is a busy month for both the World Cup and Europa Cup teams with races in Cortina, Cesana, St. Moritz, Winterberg and Konigssee. 

BobTeamGB – Half Term Report

This mid season report is being penned just as the competition programme cranks back up again after the Christmas and New Year break.

The first half of the winter has literally raced by with 7 GB teams competing in Europe and North America. That followed another big investment in driver training and pre-season ice work in general on both continents. There have been several highlights and a disappointment or two so far, but overall good improvements are being made both individually and collectively.

Our top female driver, Nicola Minichiello, continues to get back to full fitness after undergoing a knee operation last October, which addressed a problem that had limited her training through the summer. Nicola posted a 7th place at Lake Placid in the 3rd and final World Cup race in North America, and has just backed that up with another 7th place in Cortina, the first European leg of the World Cup circuit.

John Jackson has made rapid progress as a driver over the past 12 months, and in his first full season of Europa Cup 2 and 4 man racing, he has posted a best of 4th place in Cesana and not placed lower than 14th in any of his 6 races.

Martin Wright is still finding life tough in his first full World Cup season at 2 and 4 man. He has just achieved his first top 20 placing in Cortina and hopefully will move forward from here.

Jackie Davies is also finding life challenging in her debut World Cup season, racing on tracks where she has not driven before. With the next few races in Europe at familiar venues to her, Jackie's confidence and finish positions should rise appreciably.

Paula Walker has swapped crew duties for Jackie to a front seat this winter in setting out as a driver. She emphasized the progress she is making with 9th place before Christmas in the Cesana Europa Cup event.

In contrast, our men's team captain Lee Johnston has had a frustrating time with a debilitating lower back injury which badly affected the team's results and necessitated a stop to his racing programme for treatment and rehabilitation. Lee is due back racing shortly and will hopefully soon return to the form he showed towards the end of last season.

John Hillman has not managed to build on his results from last season but he will no doubt come back all the more determined to prove he has real talent as a driver.

In terms of crew, a considerable number of new athletes have joined the GB team programme and there is no doubt the standards of performance are rising – although we have a long way to go to catch and beat the best in the world.

On the staff front, Malcolm Lloyd was appointed from Canada as Ice Coach for the World Cup team in October, and he is already making a big difference with the athletes. Working alongside him is Dean Ward who started fulltime 12 months ago and faces the challenge of developing world-class start performances from our steadily expanding squad of athletes.

The wireless technology pioneered for the sport by Scyron UK is already showing what a benefit it will be to drivers, crew and staff, and the presence of Matthew Wilks on the team staff has been a big bonus.  Matthew Wilks is the team technician; he films the teams’ starts and training runs using 4 wireless high speed cameras that provide athletes with immediate high quality feedback on their performance.

Two separate teams of physiotherapists from Headley Court and the London Sports Medicine Centre are doing a great job in looking after all the team athletes on a day-to-day basis.

A very tough few weeks of racing lie ahead, with the World Championships in Altenberg the key target at the end of all that. A good platform is being established, partly due to everyone that is supporting BobTeamGB – thanks for your backing and lets hope we give you much more to get excited about in the weeks ahead!!!

Richard Simmons

Performance Director

We hope many of you will be able to see the team’s progress for yourselves at this year’s British Championships, for more information or to book our corporate package please contact matt.saunders@bobteamgb.org or phillipa.tooth@bobteamgb.org.

Featured Sponsor: Applied Intellectual Capital (AIC)

As the British Bobsleigh Association’s headline sponsor, AIC, provide much needed funds used to enhance the team’s performance and help raise the profile of the sport in Britain.  Their most recent donation of £50,000 will allow BobteamGB to work with a British based Formula 1 team in developing an exciting new technology to improve performance.

As a product development company, AIC fund, develop, patent and commercialise breakthrough technologies in electrochemistry.  They are committed to developing and defining electrochemical technologies and engineering processes that support a cleaner, healthier, more sustainable future.

With expertise rich in both electrochemistry and process engineering, AIC provide ideas that work outside of the lab and can be applied to multiple industries.  This fusion of expertise and workable ideas, combined with market motivating forces, means AIC can be found working in fields of bio-fuels, advanced energy storage, water, mining and nutraceuticals.

AIC are currently working to develop large-capacity renewable energy storage solutions and more efficient hybrid vehicle battery technologies to meet growing demand for renewable energy generation.

To find out more visit http://www.apicap.com/

Kelly Thomas Interview

BobTeamGB athletes put in a lot of hard work and dedication when training to compete for our country in the sport.  We talked to Kelly Thomas, a newcomer to bobsleigh, about her training regime and why she enjoys it so much!

How much of your time is devoted to training?
I was training 4 times a week at home in the summer before I became involved in the sport this autumn.  That will no doubt increase in 2008!

What kind of training do you have to do?
A combination of speed, strength and power.  I currently do weight training and sprint sessions.  I have other aspects such as conditioning and plyometrics to introduce. Additionally, separately to training, we practice the technical aspect of the start and learn the tracks.

How much of your training takes place on the track?
Off-season we make it to the artificial bobsleigh track at Bath as often as possible.  We train on the track more often during the season; from September onwards we go abroad and train on ice.  The rest of training is off the track.  I do sprint training on an athletics track about twice a week throughout the year.

I find being away from home is only difficult when there is time to stop and think about it.  We are so busy on the circuit that time flies by.  Days when you are travelling tend to be the days that you miss home and friends, but travel days are also for sleeping!

Do you enjoy training?  Why?
Yes, I love training.  I wouldn’t train if I didn’t enjoy it.  There are lots of aspects to training that I love; the satisfaction of completing a good session, achieving small goals you’ve set yourself, the feel good factor exercise gives you, trying new exercises, seeing improvements and the social side of training.

For you, what is the best aspect of bobsleigh? Why?
Competing! Competing is the easy part.  The training and the preparation is the challenge and competing is fun.  I’m a competitive person but mainly competitive with myself.  I get bored easily and always need something to keep me challenged!

What a great insight into being a bobsleigh athlete – thanks to Kelly for speaking to us. 

If you want to see Kelly and the other athletes in action why not come along to this year’s British Championships in Igls from 27th to 29th February – please contact matt.saunders@bobteamgb.org or visit http://www.bobteamgb.org/documents/BritishChampionshipLeaflet.pdf for more information.

Think you’ve got what it takes to compete in the next British Championships or know someone who does? Register your interest here.

With the season in full swing there’s lots to look forward to for the bobsleigh athletes and for fans alike!  We hope you’ve enjoyed this newsletter and welcome any comments and suggestions you have for topics that you would like to see featured, email jo.ashton@bobteamgb.org.