- Australian Jackie Narracott has received a silver medal at Beijing Winter Olympics
Jackie Narracott has made Australian Olympic historical past by profitable a shock silver medal within the ladies's skeleton on the Beijing Winter Video games.
The 31-year-old Queenslander scorched to second spot behind German Hannah Neise to seize Australia's very unlikely Olympic medal on the Yanqing Nationwide Sliding Centre on Saturday night time.
Australia has by no means medalled in any of the ice or sliding occasions at a Winter Olympics and would not even have any coaching services, with Narracott primarily based in England and having to organize in Europe and Korea.
It brings Australia's medal tally in Beijing to 4 - one gold, two silvers and a bronze - snapping the haul of three medals received on the final three Olympics.
A beaming Narracott had her inexperienced and gold mouth-guard on present when she was informed of the medal instantly following her ultimate run
'It is nonetheless so surreal ... absolute elation!' mentioned Narracott, who additionally turned the primary Australian to win a skeleton World Cup gold medal after topping the rostrum at St Moritz, Switzerland, final month.
'Phrases cannot describe it. We have by no means received a sliding sport medal, so for me to be it... Creating your dream twice in two races, it would not get any higher'.
Narracott shocked the sector to steer on the midway level after two runs on Friday after which slipped again to second after the third run on Saturday night time behind Neise.
With the occasions cumulative over 4 runs, she stored her cool within the ultimate run, clocking one minute 2.11 seconds however the 21-year-old German fired dwelling a run of 1:01.63 to take the win by 0.62 sec.
World Cup sequence winner Kimberley Bos from the Netherlands laid down a lightning ultimate run, clocking 1:01.87 which secured her a bronze medal.
'All the pieces simply clicked,' Narracott mentioned.
'That is essentially the most relaxed I've felt on the sled, in all probability my entire profession.
'I had nothing to lose. I knew that if I used to be simply relaxed, and really feel what I have been doing for the final three months, it could be OK.'
Narracott put down a red-hot third run to set a monitor file of 1:01.79 nevertheless it was short-lived with Neise beating the mark at 1:01.44.
Narracott trailed Neise by 0.14 seconds heading into the ultimate run, with world champion Tina Hermann, additionally from the standard sliding powerhouse Germany, in third an additional 0.34 again.
She is coached by her husband Dom Parsons, who received a bronze in skeleton for Nice Britain on the 2018 Pyeongchang Video games earlier than retiring, and he's by her facet in Beijing.
'Silver beats bronze each day of the week,' she laughed.
Now she's hoping her success, with the prospect of teammate Breeana Walker additionally profitable a medal within the monobob, could encourage a brand new era of Australian sliders.
'I am hoping it can get some extra ladies into skeleton. We used to have a program in Australia so to have some extra ladies again in and for it to not finish with me can be completely unreal,' she mentioned, whereas admitting she could not wait to get dwelling to some sunshine.
Crew chef de mission Geoff Lipshut lauded the achievement of Narracott earlier on Saturday simply to get right into a medal place after she completed sixteenth on her Olympic debut 4 years in the past.
Narracott's silver continued the group's success story, following a moguls gold for Jakara Anthony, a silver for Scotty James within the snowboard halfpipe and a bronze for Tess Coady within the snowboard slopestyle.
