Emma Lincoln-Smith has started the 2009/10 World Cup skeleton season where she left off, inside the top ten, finishing in eighth place in a weather-shortened event in Park City, Utah.
Emma Lincoln-Smith has started the 2009/10 World Cup skeleton season where she left off, inside the top ten, finishing in eighth place in a weather-shortened event in Park City, Utah.
In her first competition since finishing fifth in last season’s World Championships, the Sydney 23-year-old recorded a single run time of 51.62 seconds down the Salt Lake 2002 Olympic course, four tenths of a second behind race winner Anja Huber of Germany.
AIS team-mate Michelle Steele was 0.16 seconds further back, finishing in 12th position in a time of 51.78 seconds.
Steele’s start was particularly impressive, the fourth fastest of the day.
The Hobart-based slider was in the start gate when race officials decided to cancel the second run due to excess snow falling on the track.
AIS Skeleton Head Coach Terry Holland was disappointed at missing the second run, but pleased with his athletes’ season start.
“We could taste that second heat – it was pretty frustrating for us to lose it, because we were on track for two top tens.”
“Emma had a little bit of trouble with curve 12, she understeered it little bit and curve 6 she understeered a little bit trying to stay very relaxed and quiet and she lost a little time. But if you look at the finish times, she was within a hair’s breadth of moving up well.”
“She practised in the top two, three, four sleds consistently this week, so she’s a bit disappointed, but all things considered, eighth place in this field is a strong showing, and she was ahead of last year’s world champion and some other pretty heavy hitters.”
“It’s a tough field now – there’s not a big gap between 12th place and say sixth place, or eighth and fourth.”
“The big pluses today were their pushes – Emma was 5:12 and Michelle 5:10, and that puts us right in the hunt with the best pushers in the world.”
“We’ve pretty much buried last year for Michelle as a real anomaly. She’s very much in tune with her sled, her sliding style. Last year she was plagued with little toe touches and head movements and lots of steering that ultimately wasn’t really necessary and this year she’s done a great job eliminating those. “She’s doing a great job really economising the use of her steering, and she feels a lot more comfortable.”
The silver medal went to Canadian Amy Gough, 0.14 seconds off the pace in 51.36 seconds, with team-mate Melissa Hollingsworth in third place a bare one hundredth of a second further back.
The second event of the season will be contested in Lake Placid, New York, next Friday, Australian time.
Barry White
OWI