• Winter Olympics

Team GB's medal hopes struggle in bobsleigh

ESPN staff
February 24, 2010
Nicola Minichiello and Gillian Cooke still think a gold medal is achievable © Getty Images
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Britain's bobsleigh world champions' hopes of a medal are hanging by a thread after they placed a disappointing tenth at the halfway point of the two-man event in Vancouver, 1.38 seconds behind the Canadian leaders.

The duo of Nicola Minichiello and Gillian Cooke, one of Britain's medal hopes for the Games, were in defiant mood after the race as they declared that first place is not impossible. "We're still going for gold," Minichiello said.

"On this track anything is possible. It is the ultimate sliding track. Let's see who is still standing at the end."

The 29-year-old justified her optimism by claiming that she had worked out how to achieve greater speeds in future runs. "I am taking a skid out of turn one and it is killing our speed at the top," Minichiello said. "We'll analyse our performance and I'll sort out turn one and we'll be awesome on Wednesday."

Team GB's Paula Walker and Kelly Thomas were also in action, placing one behind Minichiello and Cooke after recording a time of 53.58 seconds in their second run. Walker was downtrodden after competing as she bemoaned her performance at Whistler Sliding Centre.

"That was one of our worst runs," she said. "We hit between turns four and five and skidded everywhere."

The United States are currently in second, with Germany third. Amy Williams' gold in the skeleton remains Team GB's solitary medal of the Games.

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.
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