Testing for the 4-Man squad to determine the first choice combination for the Games

(Daily Reports courtesy of The Winter Sports Agency)

It?s selection day for the 4-Man and the first training day on the bob track. Due to technical problems with Lee's sled, it was decided that Lee would not slide today.

The day started bright and early with a 7am rise to leave for the track at 7.30. Nicola is not a big fan of being out of bed in the mornings so she tried to ?squeeze every last minute of sleep and coziness? out of her bed before heading for breakfast and braving the early morning cold. The track walk was fine and not as cold as she expected, especially with ?the posh Team GB kit?, though Tom who is not a fan of being too hot decided to wear just his jogging bottoms, a thin jacket and trainers at minus 10 degrees - then still complained that he was too warm!

There were 21 teams training today. Nicola commented on how easy the track was after sliding in Altenberg! She drove the top of the track well but made a few mistakes at the bottom of the track giving Jackie a nice bruise on her bottom. The first run was really smooth and felt good. But on the second run they came into one off the last bends late (Gunter Sax) and they hit the right hand wall so hard that Jackie did swear rather loudly (for which she sends her apologies to her Mum). Nic got it back together and they got to the finish safely, both unharmed. They were in good spirits and Nic commented on how it was a good job Jackie was wearing all the padding on her bum. Jackie wasn't amused as she wasn't wearing any padding. No doubt Jackie will find an opportunity to return the compliment...

After sliding the girls went on to sprint training on a road near the bottom of the track. The road was quite quiet so they didn?t have to dodge too many cars at once. The sprinting was excellent and the girls are feeling very powerful.

After a day of acclimatisation and some running and lifting training yesterday, the boys got down to serious business, Team selection.
They spent the afternoon at the push start track and tested several combinations of the 4 brake/crewmen to determine what combination will push in the Olympics.

As you can guess Karl, Dan, Martin and Marcus had a really thorough warm up and got revved up to give their all, each one of them desperate to be on the fastest combination and race at the Games. The sequence was Dan and Karl on the sides with Marcus on the back, Martin and Karl on the sides and Dan on the back, Dan and Martin on the sides and Marcus on the back.

The three girls became the sled dogs for the afternoon returning the sled back up the hill after their runs needing the power of the three of them at full sprint. Subsequently Gordon is having to work hard, with lots of back cracking and leg massaging.

Each combination did 2 pushes and all the results are now in the hands of the coaches who will announce their decision tomorrow.

Karl says it's not all glamorous in the world of bobsleigh; the rest of the day was spent puling apart and crawling around in one of the sleds so Tom could fix the push handle and the boys could get it ready to slide tomorrow.

The team has also being hosting some visitors today (well Helen Carter has been hosting them really), including some journalists. One was from the Sun so the boys gave him a front page scandal that will shock the nation! Only kidding, they'll keep that particular story under wraps in case the Daily Sport arrive for interviews!

Dinner was interesting this evening, with some sponsors from the UK and the whole Team sampled fondue in the restaurant, Tom's idea. It wasn?t to the taste of most of our Olympic athletes, but Tom who is normally incredibly fussy loved it. After as little time as possible the athletes made their excuses and managed to get out to gasp for fresh air and some ?normal? food.

Big day tomorrow ? 4-Man Team announcement.