Bree Walker has come agonisingly close to winning Australia’s first-ever bobsled World Championships medal, finishing fourth in Winterburg in Germany.
In a sport where margins of victory are routinely decided by fractions of a second, Walker missed out on a maiden World Championships medal by just seven hundredths of a second.
Walker, who finished in fifth at the Beijing Winter Olympic Games in 2022, was sitting in second spot after three runs.
However, her fourth and final run was only good enough for seventh, which saw the 31-year-old miss out on a medal in heartbreaking fashion.
She, in turn, edged Romania’s Andreea Grecu into fifth by just five hundredths of a second.
Germany’s Olympic champion Lisa Buckwitz claimed bronze, who was leading at the half way mark only to be upset during her third run by snow on the course.
“I was a bit unlucky with bib number one in the third run,” Buckwitz said.
“I couldn’t have raced any better, but the time was still bad. That’s just the sport sometimes.
“Nevertheless, I didn’t expect to finish third in the end.”
Defending champion Laura Nolte of Germany claimed back-to-back gold medals thanks to an excellent second half of the competition.
“The title has huge significance for me,” Nolte said.
“After fourth place at the Olympics, gold in St Moritz last year was already a reward, and now here on the short course in Winterberg, where the start is so crucial, that makes me over the moon.”
American Elana Meyers Taylor, who took a year out of the sport to have her second child after winning silver at the Beijing Games, came second.
Walker, a former hurdler on the track before injury saw her shift to the snow, has finished on the podium four times this season in World Cup events to sit fourth in the overall World Cup rankings.
Fellow Australian Sarah Blizzard finished in 23rd place in what was her first appearance in the monobob world championships.
Walker is set to compete in the women’s two-woman bobsled competition with brakewoman Kiara Reddingius later in the week.
The pair sit in eighth place in the overall World Cup standings, with a best result of fourth place at Innsbruck in December, and finishing 16th at the Winter Olympics in 2022.
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