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Narracott grabs Australia's first Olympic medal in sliding / Photo: ©
Narracott grabs Australia's first Olympic medal in sliding
Jaclyn Narracott earned Australia's first Olympic medal in a sliding sport Saturday with silver in the women's skeleton as Germany continued their domination of the high-speed events at the Beijing Winter Games.
Hannah Neise claimed victory with a combined time of 4min 7.62sec, meaning German racers have now won all six events so far at the Yanqing National Sliding Centre.
Narracott, the overnight leader, grabbed an Australian flag in the finish area after taking silver with a time 0.62sec slower.
Neise had earlier usurped her in the rankings by breaking the track record in Saturday's third heat.
The German was also fastest in the decisive fourth race, clocking a top speed of 128 kilometres per hour (79 miles per hour).
Dutch racer Kimberley Bos, this winter's overall World Cup winner, produced two stunning performances to take bronze at 0.84sec back despite having been 10th after the first heat on Friday.
The Olympic silver medal caps a stunning few weeks for the 31-year-old Narracott, who is based at Bath University in England, where Britain developed its own tradition in skeleton.
She became the first Australian to win a World Cup race at the iconic St Moritz track last month.
German racers has now won nine of the available 18 medals in the sliding events at these Games.
Germany could sweep the gold medals as their racers have already won the four luge and two skeleton events with four bobsleigh disciplines to come.
P. Batista--JDB
