World Champs

Yesterday I raced in heat 3 and 4 of the 2005 Skeleton World Championships. I have had found this competition mentally and physically tough. On the first day of training for the first time in a couple years, I crashed out of corner 8 and lost my sled, this shook me up and I found it hard to get my focus back. Relaxing is one of the most important aspects of having a good finish time, unfortunately on the first day of racing I was not relaxed, and placed 19th in the first heat and 20th in the second heat. Yesterday the last two heats where held, and with it being my last day of sliding for the season, I decided to just relax and enjoy the two runs. I had worked out that for me to make top 16, (which was the result I needed to qualify for funding from SPARC) I needed two 58s runs, which was over a second faster than my best down time. I nearly did it with my first run, I was relaxed, still, and I melted into my sled, I was not fighting my sled and the run felt effortless, I got a personal best push and finish time of 58.96, over a second faster than my best time from the start of the season here. My second run was a 59.24, not fast
enough. So I placed 20th with 4 inconsistent runs, but one of them was fantastic.
Kelly finished 22nd, and in her last run she took half a second off her best finish time. Ben Sandford finished 13th with 4 consistent runs.
So that concludes the 2004/2005 world tour, I have had an amazing season, improved my world ranking to 15th, placed 11th in the Sigulda world cup, and had huge personal best push and finish times at every track. I would have not been able to compete this season with out the support I have received from all my sponsors, family and friends, especially the help I have had from John and Mary Lee from the Snow Farm in Wanaka. Thank you. I arrive back in New Zealand on the 4th of March.

The Torino Olympics are less than a year away. So my preparation for the
Olympics starts today.

Louise Corcoran
Major Sponsor: Snow Farm NZ www.snowfarmnz.com visit them.
Supported by NZAS, The Skeggs Foundaton, Base, Uvex, Icebreaker, Mainland
Outdoors, Nevada-sport, Brooker Travel Group, Dirty Dog and the Guthries.
Check out my race diary www.nzskeletonracer.com

The night before the race.

It is now time to go to bed on the night before the race, my sled is polished, the runners are beautiful, and my bag is all packed. My helmet is undamaged from the incident yesterday, and I am so excited. My favorite race song is playing right now (the other side by the Red Hot Chilli Peppers), and I am ready to play. Bring it on. It is time to fly.

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Race tomorrow

My sled is polished, the runners are beautiful, and my bag is all packed. My helmet is undamaged from the incident yesterday, and I am so excited. My favourite race song is playing right now (the other side by the Red Hot Chilli Peppers), and I am ready to play. Bring it on.

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Check out my current world rankings and results, see the Eurosport or Speed Channel broadcast schedule.

Day four

Last day of training, I got to the track real early today, first person there (as usual), and did a track walk. There is so much you have to get right on the day to have a real fast run, I am just starting to understand how much is needed. Mark Elliot was at the track this morning, Mark is from the WOP program (the winter olympic performance program run by the NZOC and the NZ Academy of Sport), Mark is over here to meet all the skeleton and Bob athletes, and get a beter understanding of the two sports, unfortunately most people in NZ think of skeleton and Bobsleigh as skeleton/bobsleigh, rather than two totally different sports (the way tennis and hockey are different), but I think Mark has now seen the difference. It is stange having people at the track there to watch me, I am not used to it.

My first run was very frustrating, I hit loads of entries, just tapping the wall at the entry of the corner, and getting a bump. My time was slow, and I felt annoyed with myself after the run. But my second run was much better, I did alot of things right, and it was easy, effortless, the run felt wonderful, infact it was a screamer, one of those runs where as you cross the finish line you just have to let out a "woooohooooo" , not a cheesey hollywood one but an uncontrolable thrilling powerful release of adrenaline induced excitement. Wicked. But then I saw my time and it was just as slow as the first run. It is frustrating. What is so strange about skeleton is that your best feeling, clean, smooth runs are often the slow ones... I just have to let her fly and relax, and let her get right upto the edge of being out of control, scare myself even and then I think I'll have a real fast run.

I am in the top group for the draw in this race, I am the 10th highest ranked athlete here! My draw was fantastic, 3rd, that is the best draw I have ever had.

The day would not be complete with out something crazy happening in the kiwi camp, and well, today I managed to reverse Turcs big North American car right over my back pack, squshing everything inside and leaving a huge dirty, snowy tire print across my bag! What and idiot, luckily my helmet was not crushed.

Tomorrows a day off, time to relax, sand runners, think about the race, visualise, and show Ben and Karen around Canada Olympic Park.

Day 3 of Official Training and I finally get a 59.

Well today was much better, there is nothing like a fantastic run to make life look a whole lot brighter. I had a personal best down time, my previous was 60.02, and today in my first run I did a 59.67, placing me 13th in the field, and only 2/10th of a second away from 10th. Now I need a 58 second down time... On my second run I decided to put my rock up, which was a mistake, I was out of control the whole way down the track, and finished 22nd, at least I know where my limits are now, they are different for different tracks and temperatures.

Kel had a couple of rough runs, and her archiles tendon is playing up. Ben finished about 18th out of the men, I dont think he was too happy with that. After training Kel and I trained in the ice house (an indoor push start facility, with a 100m section of track built to resemble the start) with the American team, I have a lot of work on my push to do, it is my push that lets me down, I need to push faster. Most of the american team have very impressive fast sprint starts, and great technique, so I learn a lot from listening and watching. I am glad Jon (my strength and conditioning coach from the NZ Academy of Sport) is here to catch video of how my push needs to look. I have a busy NZ winter of training ahead of me, I will be pushing faster next year.

Kelly and I are selling T shirts here at the champs, they have skelly girl or skelly boy printed on the front with a logo of a slider and "world skeleton tour 2004/2005" If we can sell them all then we will make a couple hundred bucks to put towards our first credit card repayment, (or at least the interest).

A few weeks ago I called 1800 speedo and asked if I could swap a race bib for a super fast fastskin swim suit, they make excellent speed suits, and the guy I was talking to said 'sure, I'll send you two'!!!! How amazingly easy was that! But they couldnt ship them from the US to Canada with out me being charged, but he must have found a way to do it, becuase they just arrived. These are the speed suits I wrote about last december when I was in Austria, they feel so good on, and cost about 300 euro... well out of my price range. THANK YOU SPEEDO!

Training day 2

Well training today was better, I stayed on my sled and crossed the finish line both runs, my times however were not so good, I was trailing at the back of the training group both runs, but I wasn't exactly relaxed in my first run, a little nervous. Lots of room for improvement, tomorrow I will get my head together, stop using my feet, drive less, and relax. Kel is happy with her two runs. We just went to the Americans hotel and watched video taken of us today, it was good, I learnt a bit, and know what I need to change for tomorrow. Two more training days, 4 runs.

Ben had 2 good runs today.

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Calgary WM day one

Training day one, well I was in for a surprise. Run one was ok, smooth, not too skiddy, I was happy at the end. But run two, first I popped out of the groove, not a good way to stay focused, and in corner 7 I steered out too early and too hard, and too short, and was kept on the left wall going into corner 8, 8 must be entered in more middle right, definately not left, that is too late. I should have dropped my right toe to get over there but I didn't. So I went up and down and up again and there was no corner left as I was going up the second time and I flipped. Not a hard crash, it should have been easy to roll over back onto my runners, but the sled got ahead of me, and I rolled over with out my sled, and the sled stayed on its saddle with the runners facing skyward... I had tight hold of my sled, I wasn't going to let go, and then I started to feel the ice and speed burning my legs and stomach, and since I could not get back on the sled with it up the wrong way, I pushed it away from me and started rolling around so that I could have an evenly distributed assortment of ice burn and bruising over the whole body and not just the front of the legs ( there is some logic in there some where). I came to a stop in the belly of corner 9, pretty pissed off, full of adrenaline, and very frustrated. Number one rule, never ever let go of your sled. Unreal. Day one of training at the World Champs and I get a DNF on my time sheet (did not finish).
I am glad I was wearing my icebreaker long johns and tech top, the pure wool isn't going to melt like lycra or polypro can, and I am sure I would have more burns to complain about if I didn't have them on.
I was clocked at 98.41 km per hour with out my sled.
So my elbow is sore, my hip is sore and the worst one is the ice burn covering my whole left but cheek. It's beautiful.
My sled stopped in the same corner, since it wasn't on its runners it didnt get very far, but the back corner of the fiberglass pod is a bit cracked, and I need to replace some padding and tape that came off the handles. It could have been worse.
Ben got to Calgary in time and had two good runs, Kel had two good runs as well.
3 more days of training to go.

World Champs training starts tomorrow

You will see that I have had to delete my stunning snow farm photo and link, apparently the HTML was corrupt and I have not been able to publish it, I dont know how to fix it, so if any one knows how to edit the HTML for the picture and add in the missing opening tag, then email me the fixed HTML text that would be great. email me

I did not have internet access in Lake Placid, so sorry for all of you who have been looking for the up dates. I have internet access here at Peters where I am staying in Calgary, so I will be updating daily.

In Lake Placid, Kelly and I stayed in a pokey little motel half way between the track and Lake Placid village, it was horrid dirty little place, but affordable. Iain stayed on through the world cup (he was already in the Lake Placid sliding in the Americas cup race), and he got to do some fore running. His times were impressive, on the last day he slid, which was our second training day, his times placed him in the middle of the world cup final field!!! Considering that the bottom 4 nations where not even there, his times show how much of an improvement Iain has made in the last half of the season (he finished last in every world cup in the first half of the season). Go Iain. What a great note for him to finish the season on.

We train in the morning, at 9am, the last I heard, Ben had some trouble with his air ticket and needed to get another one, and was not due into Canada till late tonight, and was arriving in Montreal, which is 4 hours flying time away, so I hope he can find a seat on a connecting flight to Calgary in time to get here for training tomorrow.

We have 4 days of training, followed by one day off and then 2 race days.

hi

Lake Placid

A few days ago on the 11th of February, I raced in the 2004/2005 Skeleton world cup final, held in Lake Placid, USA. The world cup final is onlyfor the top 8 nations, with the lower ranking nations competing in theChallenge Cup series, which were held on the same day in KonigsseeGermany. I had a good training week, and I think the two weeks I spenttraining here last October gave me a good advantage. In the race I placed14th in both heats leaving me 14th overall, and securing my world ranking at 15th over all.

I would have liked to finish with a better result in this race, and looking at the timing splits I was frustrated to see that with only the tiniest improvement a 10th place could have been with in my grasp. If I was only 17/100's of a second fasterin each run I would have finished 10th!

So close I could smell it.

My improvements this season have been huge, and I have learnt a lot about how a sled responds in corners and how pressures in a corner can be used. I have also moved from trailing at the back of the field to being able to feel like I am realy part of the competition. Kel was disqualified from the race, after her sled weighed 500g too heavy during the race. Tionette Stoddard placed19th. There were 21 women in the race. The New Zealand mens team did not qualify for the world cup final and instead went to the challenge cup where all lower ranking nations and non-world cup nations compete to secure spots at the World Championships and next seasons World Cup Tour. Ben Sandford won both races and will bejoining Kelly and I here in Calgary at the World Championships this week.

I am excited to have a big kiwi support crew here this week, Jon Turnbull, my strength and conditioning coach from Wanaka is over here learning more about the important sprint start. Jon will be working closly with the American coach this week to ensure we get the ideal training program started back in NZ for my build up to the Olympic season. My brother Ben and his wife Karen are also coming to the World Champs, I have never had any friends or family from New Zealand watch me race or train, so it will be great having them here.

14th

so sorry I havent been able to write anything this week, I have not had access to the internet. The good news is that I just finished the race and I placed 14th over all. It was a very frustrating race, in run one I was in 11th place coming out of corner 14 and in run 2 I was in 10th place coming out of corner 14 but i lost lots of time and finished 14th in both runs. If only (I know there is no point saying 'if only") I could have gone 17/100ths of a second faster in each run then I would have finished 10th.

Will write more about the week tomorrow, but now we have to go off to the prize giving. It is on a frozen lake!

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Off to Lake Placid

Today I am on my way to Lake Placid, I am flying to Montreal, then I drive south into the US to Lake Placid which is in the Adirondack mountains. I didn't end up training last night, the night before I hurt my arm, so thought I would give it a rest (you don't really use your arm when sliding, but I dont want to arrive in Lake Placid beat up and worn out). I only got 3 runs here, after missing the first two sessions because my sled was still in Germany, taking last night off and taking only one run on wednesday, seems like a bit of a wasted trip, but it did get lots of down time, away from the track, just chilling and reading (the da vinci code), which has probably been good for me. It has been 125 days since I left NZ. Thats a long time. Just 20 days of the tour left, and only 24 rides on my sled to go. They will be 24 good ones.

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Trouble in Cesana-Pariol

The new Olympic track in Cesana Italy has had several bad accidents in the last week during the luge international training week and the training for the Luge World Cup, with some teams pulling out of the race saying that the track is too dangerous. The crashes have been in the same corner that an Italian skeleton athlete crashed in (ending up in hospital) during the skeleton homologation race the day prior to the international skeleton training earlier this month. Track workers rebuilt the wooden surrounds in the corner in an attempt to make it safer. Luge athletes have more directional control of their sleds (they are totally different to a skeleton sled), and as a result can get out of control and into dangerous positions on the track more easily than skeleton athletes. I was just reading the news on the FIL website and thought I would share this:

"The FIL-Officials (FIL Jury and FIL Technical Delegates) of the Luge World Cup in Cesana/Pariol have decided to cancel the training and World Cup for the following reason:At this moment the track in Cesana/Pariol is technically demanding. After the past days of training the FIL Officials have found that individual athletes do not have the technical skills to negotiate the track fairly. In the sense of the Olympic ideal the FIL Officials have decided that the track needs to be simplified during the summer; the World Cup and training will be rescheduled within 2005."

Well, maybe it is true that luge world cup athletes have not got the skill to negotiate the new track, meaning it must be the most technically demanding track in the world for them, or there is a problem with the track. We are all interested to see how they change the track before the Olympics. It will be strange for lugers to have a world cup on the Olympic track the same season as the Olympics.

Photo by Patrick Singleton: Ben Sandford standing in the exit of corner 18, as part of the roof and short wall are being rebuilt after Maurizio crashed there during the track homologation.

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Calgary lovingly welcomes me back

Finally I got on the ice last night. Since I was sliding in the Alberta Skeleton club session (and they don't get priority placement in the schedule) traning was at 9pm, I am still jet lagged (seems to be harder to shake this time) so my body thought I was training at 4am ish, but I toughened up, had some caffine and got on with it.

Usually in Calgary on my first run I can do very little, have a bit of a tourist run, look around get my bearings again, and get to the bottom with out bouncing off the walls or collecting any bruises. Not this time. The track is different right now, apparently they have cut back on track workers, you get a jolt over every expansion joint, even on some of the walls, its a bit like when your going down the Parakai hydroslides, out near West Auckland, and you loose your mat, and catch all the joints in the slide, it's the same thing but about 5 times faster ;-) I managed to hit out of corner 1 (!), 3, hit the entrance of 5 so hard I bounced in my sled and bit my tounge (don't know why it was hanging out), out of 5, out of 8, added a colourful hip bruise out of 9, hit out of 11, and out of the finish corner. So that run was a wee surprise, so much for a leasurly look around, my second run was bit better. The good thing was it was only about 5 degrees, it felt like a tropical heat wave compared to St Moritz. I am going to watch the Canadian team train today with Ben, he has been here for over a week now, and is sliding very well, and we train again tonight at 9pm.

Kelly has had two sessions on the ice in Lake Placid, USA and hasn't hurt her hand, which is a relief. Iain and Tionette are also training in Lake Placid, and Russ in in Konigssee, Germany.

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