WAIS Winter Olympic hopeful Lucy Chaffer has recorded a top ten finish at the opening round of the World Cup Skeleton circuit in Calgary, Canada.
Chaffer was placed in 11th after her first of three runs, but produced her best effort in the final slide to move two places into ninth, picking up valuable Olympic qualification points in the process.
In an encouraging display for Australia’s skeleton squad, Chaffer’s Queensland teammate Michelle Steele picked up a bronze medal after finishing third.
Steele was initially thought to of finished fourth, but moved into the bronze medal position after officials disqualified American Noelle Pikus-Pace. The US competitor had set the fastest time but was cancelled out on account of sled saddle irregularities.
AIS Head Skeleton Coach, Erik Bernotas, was pleased with the efforts of both his sliders.
“It is a really good result to get two in the top ten,” Bernotas said. “We have had a really positive week, worked really well as a team.
“We’ve put in a lot of work coming in to this season, so you have to put trust in that, which both Michelle and Lucy did today.
“It’s set the tone for the coming events. Every week we learn and that is important as we move towards Sochi.”
The World Cup schedule moves onto Park City, Utah in the USA next weekend, with the Australian contingent again set to compete for qualification points towards the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympic Games.
-AOC
