2010 WINTER OLYMPICS:BRITAIN'S TWO-MAN bobsleigh team, John Jackson and Dan Money, walked away from a terrifying crash during heats on day nine of the Winter Olympics at the Whistler Sliding Centre yesterday. Jackson and Money lost control of their sled five curves from the end of their heat-one run and it overturned.
Money was thrown out of the back as the sled flipped over and slid down the track. Jackson, the pilot, was trapped inside the upturned car until it came to a halt further down the run but he was able to climb out of the sled when it came to a rest.
Money, who suffered a gash on his left calf, said: “The track’s fast, the fastest track in the world but it’s a technical track. If you get it wrong at a high speed it can go very wrong. It’s a good track. It’s fast and challenging, but it’s the Olympic Winter Games, so you expect it to be. This can happen – it’s bobsleigh, it’s not ballet dancing. We’ll just have to come back for the four-man.”
“It’s disappointing because we’ve had some fairly decent times in the two-man,” said Jackson. “The track is in an amazing condition. I just made a mistake.”
The sled of Australian pairing of Jeremy Rollerston and Duncan Pugh also flipped over and they too escaped relatively unhurt.
The British and Australian sleds were disqualified from the second heat having failed to finish their first runs while the Liechtenstein pairing of Michael Klingler and Thomas Duerr, who also lost control of their sled, remained in the competition after crossing the finishing line.
German pairing Andre Lange and Kevin Kuske led the field after heats one and two with a time of 1:54.31.
Britain’s men’s curling team lost 7-6 to unbeaten Canada leaving a difficult battle to clinch a place in the semi-finals. Britain have won three and lost three of the six round-robin games and must win their remaining three matches to keep their medal hopes alive.
Canada’s win, under skip Kevin Martin, was sweet revenge for losing their last four meetings with David Murdoch’s Scottish quartet. Canada took a 2-0 lead in the second end but Murdoch’s hammer on the third got Britain back in the game, the skip’s throw nudging aside a Canadian stone to claim three points for a 3-2 lead.
The nip and tuck continued and Britain went into the 10th and final end defending a one-point lead. Martin’s team delivered two scoring stones and with three stones left apiece, the British third, Ewan MacDonald, had to deal with three Canadian rocks and took all three out, albeit leaving two of them in the outer circles of the house. Murdoch’s first stone was taken out by Martin and his final throw took the wrong line, handing the Canadians two points for victory. Earlier in the day the British quartet had beaten China 9-4.
Great Britain’s women curlers suffered an extra-end defeat against the USA. Britain led 5-4 going into the final end with the hammer but 19-year-old skip Eve Muirhead’s hammer was undercooked, enabling the Americans to take the match to an extra end, which they won when Muirhead’s hammer was wide. Britain have won three and lost three of their round-robin matches, leaving their semi-final qualification hopes in the balance.
Austrian Andrea Fischbacher won gold in the ladies’ Super G in 1:20.14; Slovenia’s Tina Maze took silver and the American downhill gold medallist Lindsey Vonn had to settle for bronze.
Britain’s Chemmy Alcott, who finished 20th and competes in the giant slalom on Wednesday and the slalom on Friday, said: “I didn’t really go for it enough. I made a judgment error and lost a ridiculous amount of speed.”
Guardian Service
Norway’s Aksel Lund Svindal was on course for a second gold after taking the lead in the downhill section of the super-combined event on Whistler Mountain yesterday. Svindal, who won the super-G race on Friday and silver in the downhill last week, posted a time of one minute, 53.15 seconds to lead with the slalom section to follow.
Svindal’s nearest challenger was 20-year-old Italian Dominik Paris, who was 0.39 second behind with Swiss Carlo Janka third, half a second adrift on the Dave Murray course.
Downhill winner Didier Defago, of Switzerland, was in fourth place with Swede Hans Olsson lying fifth.
Swiss Michael Schmid was the fastest in men’s ski cross qualifying on Cypress Mountain, posting a time of one minutes 12.53 seconds.
Switzerland’s Michael Schmid won the gold medal in the men’s freestyle skiing ski cross, with Andreas Matt of Austria in second with bronze going to Audun Groenveld of Norway.
Meanwhile, Swiss Olympic ski jumping champion Simon Ammann yesterday expressed concern about rule changes which he said would boost take-off speeds and make the sport less safe.
The International Ski Federation (FIS), worried that jumpers are leaping dangerously far, will next season boost the minimum body mass index required for athletes and shorten their skis.
This will reduce jumpers’ aerodynamic profiles and cut the distances they can achieve.
But Ammann, who won the individual normal and large hill medals at the Games, said crowds wanted to see long jumps and competitors would have to take off faster.
“That’s a problem for us ski jumpers because the speeds we have are quite high already . . . when I jump on the big hill I land with a minimum speed of 125km an hour,” he said.
“When we get heavier and have less (ski) surface we are more ballistic. That means we have even more speed at the end.”
When Ammann won Saturdays large hill title, his first jump was 144m, longer than the maximum safe distance of 140m. Hill slopes flatten out quickly at the bottom and landing beyond the safety limit can be dangerous.
“We have to have really serious discussions to see where ski jumping should go because everybody is asking for long jumps. People down there (at the bottom of the hill) are singing ‘145, 145’,” said the 28-year-old.
However, Walter Hofer, the International Skiing Federation (FIS) director at the Games, said the rule changes were designed to protect jumpers. “They will land earlier. It’s safer. Theres no chance of over jumping the hill . . . we always try to keep the athletes inside the landing area,” he said.
Today's Highlights
7pm:Biathlon – men's 15km mass start
9pm:Alpine skiing – men's super combined slalom
9.18pm:Freestyle skiing – men's ske cross finals
12am:Speed skating – Women's 1,500m
Television coverage:BBC2 and Eurosport
