A plan in the offseason to get stronger and faster and a healthy dose of self-belief are the foundation to Carrie Russell’s win in the Women’s Monobob Bobsleigh World Series event in Park City, Utah on Sunday.
Russell, 30, a 100m gold medalist at the World University Games in 2011 and 2013 World Championship 4x100m relay champion, produced a combined time of 1:49.08 to defeat American Nicole Vogt (1:49.27) and Brazil’s Marina Silva (1:49.83), who took silver and bronze, respectively.
She said a lot of hard work went into making her season debut a success.
“Well, I created a plan which involved doing some track training at the MVP track club with Coach Stephen Francis and my push coach Wayne Thomas, to ensure my speed and strength are up, and its working,” Russell told Sportsmax.TV shortly after clearing doping control Sunday night.
On her first run on Saturday, Russell attained a top speed of 120.47km/h over the 1.335m course, which saw her post a time of 54.95s. However, on Sunday, she managed to improve her speed to 121.45, which meant an improvement of 0.82s on the time she produced on Saturday.
She explained that it simply came down to using her natural talents to get a better start. On Sunday, she was only 0.03s better than the 5.79s she managed the day before but it translated into a massive difference. On Saturday she was at the first interval in 21.60s. On Sunday, she was 0.11 quicker at 21.49 and let to the massive improvement in time over the course.
“Well, its reviewing the videos and seeing the progress,” she explained.
“And then I got more comfortable trying new stuff. Audra Segree (compatriot bobsledder) and I sat and talked with Coach Wayne about the start. He explained that in order to be ahead and have room to make mistakes you have to get ahead from the beginning which means I need to start fast.
“I understood, so I told myself that I have to run deeper and I know the faster the sleigh is the easier it is to drive. So, I told myself that I am the fastest out there, stronger, and that’s what matters. It’s all in God’s hands after that.”
Russell has three two-woman races coming up from January 21-23 but she is still unsure who will be racing with her.
Leighton Levy is a journalist with 28 years’ experience covering crime, entertainment, and sports. He joined the staff at SportsMax.TV as a content editor two years ago and is enjoying the experience of developing sports content and new ideas. At SportsMax.tv he is pursuing his true passion - sports.
T&T two-man bobsleigh team makes historic medal run at North American Cup
The Trinidad and Tobago bobsleigh team of Axel Brown and Shakeel John created history for that country at the North American Cup when they finished fourth in the two-man bobsleigh event in Park City, Utah.
They are also now the second Caribbean country to win medals at the North American Cup as Jamaica has won multiple events and medals from the women monobob, two-woman and two-man bobsled events dating back to the 1990s.
In the North American Cup the first six places win medals and Brown and John clocked a combined time of 1:38.24 (48.81/49.43) to finish behind Canada (1:38.11), USA (1:37.78) and the winning Korean team (1:37.59).
It was a major moment in the sport’s history in the twin-island republic athletes.
“We’re all coming to terms with the fact that we just made history,” Brown told Newsday.
“Of course, we wanted to be in the top three, but to be racing against the biggest nations in our sport and challenging them on the ice (is great). I can’t wait to see what this team can continue to achieve.”
The history-making team races again Tuesday, November 22 and Wednesday, November 23.
'We're now in high-performance mode' - JBSF president Stokes insists team moving on from CAS rejection, focussed on Olympics
President of the Jamaica Bobsleigh and Skeleton Federation, Chris Stoke, insists the team will now shift all its attention into competition mode following an unsuccessful appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sports (CAS) on behalf of the country’s two-woman team.
On Monday, a CAS panel rejected an appeal filed by woman bobsledder Jazmine Fenlator-Victorian who had called for a recalculation of the point rankings for the Beijing 2022 Quota Allocation for the two-woman event, based only on races that actually took place.
The appeal was based on the decision made by the Olympic organisers after inclement weather had led to the cancelation of a meet scheduled for Germany on December 4. According to the filing, the International Bobsleigh and Skeleton Federation instead counted a December 5 competition twice, which allowed a sled piloted by France’s Margot Boch to qualify for the final spot in the two-woman bobsled competition at the Olympics. The decision meant Audra Segree, Fenlator-Victorian's brakewoman, missed out on a spot via a tiebreak. The court, however, rejected the appeal.
While insisting it was important to air their grouses, Stokes insists the team is ready to move on.
“The decision has come down as dismissed, we accept that wholeheartedly. Winning is one thing but the more important thing is to speak up and I’m very proud of Jazmine for speaking up,” Stokes said.
“We maintain that it is better sports results be determined on the field of play and not in administration but we put that behind us and we are now in a high-performance zone and we are getting ready for competition.”
Fenlator-Victorian will compete in the Women’s Monobob, which gets underway on February 11. Jamaica’s men’s team will compete in both the Two-Man and Four-Man events, which get underway a few days later.
'It’s in our blood to overcome adversity' - Fenlator-Victorian believes battling bobsled teams typify Jamaica spirit
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