Sliding Season 2013 / 14

I thought I would start a thread dedicated to the sliding arts of Luge, Skeleton and Bobsleigh for this season. Anyone want to join in..?

Just seen the completion of the women's Luge from Lillehammer on Eurosport.

I remember the Lillehammer track from the winter games in 1994 and it was tough then. It doesn't seem to have gotten any easier with the passing of the years. It took a fantastic second run from Natalie Geisenberger to pinch the victory from Alex Gough, who was only 6th after the first run, and Tatiana Ivanova. Ivanova was only 4/1000's behind Geisenberger after the first run, but was never able to seriously challenge the German's second run time.

Commiserations to Kate Hansen who put in a fantastic first run to lead the field, but completely lost it on the second run and finished in 12th place overall. I think nerves got to the youngster and it was a sorry sight to see her completely lose her line in the midsection, especially off the notorious bend 10. Still, she did finish in front of Tatjana Hufner..... and that's a good result at any time.

The men's doubles produced a 1-2-3 for Russia. The Russians mean business this season, with Sochi in mind for February.

It's onto Innsbruck next week for Round Two of the World Cup.

Congratulations to Shelley Rudman on being a nominee for the Women's Sports Personality of the Year awards on Sky last night.

She didn't win the award, but being a nominee is an achievement in itself as British women's sport continues it's upward surge.

But it's not all about Rudman this year.... Lizzy Yarnold has done well to top the podium in Calgary, albeit at the expense of Noelle Piskis-Pace (USA) who overtook her on the second run but was disqualified after the British team made a complaint about her using illegal tape on the handle of her sled.

There is a fair bit of bad blood between the British and American women's Skeleton teams. At the last Winter Olympics, Team USA made an official complaint about Amy Williams' helmet. If their appeal had been successful, Williams would have lost out on her gold medal, but Piskis-Pace would have moved up to Bronze medal place.

I hope this ill feeling isn't going to continue. Nobody wins in the end and I would hope that the British and American teams can shake hands and go to Sochi for a fierce, but civilised competition. Obviously if there are major equipment issues I would hope they could be sorted out before the event starts. We don't really want medals to be decided by judges ruling on goggles, tape, or any other nit-picking niff-naff and trivia.

Sort out your differences on the ice and may the best slider win.

Some really good news pre Sochi: John Jackson and his team won a silver medal in the 4 man bobsleigh European Championships (4th overall but the second of the European teams) AND Lizzy Yarnold won the overall skeleton World Cup series with a 9th place giving her the winning points score; Shelley Rudman finished 3rd in the same race at Konigsee to take third overall in the series.

Yes, very good news and it's great to see GB excelling at a Winter Sport discipline. 

But let's not count any medals until they're resting on British shoulders.

(still..... I can't deny I'm really hopeful).