Australia’s record Winter Olympics medal tally could grow even larger with bobsleigh star Breeana Walker’s campaign underway and aerials medal fancy Laura Peel beginning on Monday.
Peel was supposed to enter qualifying on Sunday night but the event was delayed until Monday due to adverse conditions – meaning too much snow.
She is one of the favourites for gold in the event Alisa Camplin famously won at Salt Lake City 2002, followed by Lydia Lassila at Vancouver 2010.
Stream Over 50 Sports Live & On-Demand with Kayo. New to Kayo? Try 14-Days Free Now >
Peel finished fifth at the last Games in PyeongChang and is one of the top competitors in the field, along with Chinese pair Xu Mengtao and Kong Fanyu, the latter winning bronze four years ago.
But Peel isn’t the only Aussie threat with Danielle Scott a real medal chance and Gabi Ash also in the mix to finish well.
There are 25 competitors in the first qualifying session, with the top six advancing to the final. Each athlete only gets one jump.
The remaining 19 then compete in the second and final qualifying session to find six more finalists.
MORE COVERAGE
Silver skeleton star! Narracott makes this Australia’s best ever Winter Games
‘Help’: China orders Olympics star to delete ‘ridiculous’ photos
Russia blasts Olympics chiefs as 15yo superstar’s doping scandal causes chaos
Walker, affectionately known as “Bobsleigh Bree”, began the four-part Women’s Monobob final on Sunday afternoon in Beijing.
In Walker’s first run, she got off to a flying start and was on track to take the lead from American Kallie Humphries.
But a series of small mistakes proved costly, as she briefly bumped into the walls with her sled.
With those errors, Walker flipped from the green zone to the red as she gradually lost time on pace-setter Humphries.
She crossed the line for a time of 1:05:55 which left her in 10th spot after the opening heat.
In her second heat, Walker bettered her first run by just a milisecond to finish with a total time of 2:11:09 to take the provisional lead.
Though she was quickly surpassed, Walker’s time was the sixth-best in the second heat, and she now ranks seventh overall, less than 0.2 seconds from fifth and 0.77 seconds off a medal.
Heats 3 and 4 will take place tomorrow.
Current Women’s Monobob Standings
1. Kaillie Humphries (USA) – 2:09.10
2. Christine de Bruin (CAN) – 2:10.14 (+1.04)
3. Laura Nolte (GER) – 2:10.32 (+1.22)
4. Elana Meyers Taylor (USA) – 2:10.42 (+1.32)
5. Huai Mingming (CHN) – 2:10.92 (+1.80)
6. Melanie Hasler (SUI) – 2:11.04 (+1.94)
7. Breeana Walker (AUS) – 2:11.09 (+1.99)
Two runs remaining on Monday afternoon AEDT, with times from all four runs combined to determine winner
Walker dazzled in the training heats, coming 1st, 1st, 1st, 5th, 7th and 2nd to highlight her strong medal credentials for the event.
And with Australia’s best-ever medal tally for a Winter Games, currently sitting at one gold medal, two silvers and one bronze, Walker’s form in the training heats has the nation hopeful of adding another to the collection.
Aussie skier Louis Muhlen-Schulte clocked an overall time of 1:01:44 to jump into 27th place in the first run of the men’s giant slalom.
Only the top 30 get a second run, and Muhlen-Schulte faces an axious wait until the end of the session to see if he will get a crack at another go down the course with a medal on the line.
Should he get a second run, the event will begin around 4:45pm.
EVENTS DELAYED DUE TO TOO MUCH SNOW
Californian-born Chinese sensation Eileen Gu’s bid for a second gold medal at the Beijing Games was held up Sunday when women’s freeski slopestyle qualification was postponed because of heavy snow.
Elsewhere at the Games, the second of three training runs for the women’s downhill was cancelled.
Freestyle skier Gu, who won the women’s Big Air title in her Olympic debut last week, is competing in the freeski slopestyle and halfpipe events in Zhangjiakou, about 180 kilometres (110 miles) northwest of Beijing.
There was no official word on when slopestyle qualification would be rescheduled to.
It was originally set to start at 10:00am (0200 GMT) on Sunday, but was pushed back two hours before being postponed for the day as snow fell down.
The final is currently set to start at 9:30am on Monday.
The training run for women’s downhill skiing at the National Alpine Skiing centre in Yanqing, north of Beijing, had been scheduled for 11:00 am Sunday.
“Due to the snowfall the jury together with the organiser have decided to cancel today’s women’s downhill training,” it was announced.
It had been due to be held between the two legs of a medal event, the men’s giant slalom.
The first run of the giant slalom did go ahead.
Female racers have a third training run scheduled for Monday, with the downhill proper due on Tuesday.
– AFP
Day 9 schedule (Aussies in action, all times in AEDT)
12.30pm – Bobsleigh, women’s monobob run 1 (Bree Walker)
1pm – Freestyle skiing, women’s freeski slopestyle qualification run 1 (Abi Harrigan)
1.15pm – Alpine skiing, men’s giant slalom run 1 (Louis Muhlen-Schulte)
2pm – Bobsleigh, women’s monobob run 2 (Bree Walker)
2pm – Freestyle skiing, women’s freeski slopestyle qualification run 2 (Abi Harrigan)
4.45pm – Alpine skiing, men’s giant slalom run 2 (Louis Muhlen-Schulte)
10pm – Freestyle skiing, women’s aerials qualification 1 (Laura Peel, Danielle Scott, Gabi Ash)
10.45pm – Freestyle skiing, women’s aerials qualification 2 (Laura Peel, Danielle Scott, Gabi Ash)
Follow the day’s Winter Olympics action in our live blog below!
If you can’t see the blog, tap here.