Jamaica kick-starts 2022 bobsleigh preparations
THE JAMAICA Bobsleigh and Skeleton Federation has registered four athletes in an International Bobsleigh and Skeleton Federation school in Lake Placid, New York, to kickstart its preparations for the 2022 Winter Olympic Games in Beijing, China.
The athletes who have been entered are Carrie Russell, Shanwayne Stephens, Nimroy Turgott f or Bobsleigh, and Audra Segree for Skeleton.
Russell and Segree were members of the two-man bobsleigh team which created history as the first Jamaican female team to qualify and participate in a Winter Olympic Games. With Segree as the reserve, Russell and pilot Jazmine Fenlator- Victorian were placed 19th.
Turgott and Stephens were a part of the four-man team which missed qualification to the PyeonChang Winter Games by one spot.
Jo Manning and Dudley Stokes will accompany the athletes as coaches. The athletes left the island on Sunday to take part in the threeweek programme.
After arriving at the PyeongChang, Stokes said the women’s participation has laid the foundation for the country to flourish in the sport.
“They represented the country well and have set us up nicely to deep en our participation in women’ s bobsleigh ,” Stokes said. Stokes said that the athletes’ participation in the three-week programme should create more flexibility among the group. “Carrie (who was the brakeman on the PyeongChang team) will be driving,”Stokes said.
This comes as welcomed news for the organisation, after it was disclosed that a member of the team that competed in the two-man women bosleigh competition in PyeongChang had tested positive for a banned substance.