The first time Kerry Morgan took a trip down the bobsled track she was understandably nervous and had everyone telling her a long list of do’s and dont’s in the likelihood of a crash.
That was three years ago and now the 25-year-old is Great Britain’s bobsleigh pilot and a Winter Olympics hopeful after being spotted by Great Britain’s team coaches.
Kerry, who has been training at the Quarry Swimming and Fitness Centre in Shrewsbury, is in the early stages of preparing for the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics in Russia.
Olympic hopeful Kerry Morgan
“I am asked by many people: ‘How do you get into bobsleigh?’ Or when they discover I am involved in it they reply, ‘Oh, I love Cool Runnings’, but I’ve been involved in RAF bobsleigh for three years now and had no experience in it prior to joining the Royal Air Force,” she said.
“My first exposure to RAF bobsleigh was a testing held at RAF Cosford, then to the RAF novice camp in Austria followed by being whisked off to Italy for Great Britain trials and testing. Then that was me, foot in the door of the team.”
One of her favourite tracks in the world is between St Moritz in Switzerland, due to its beauty and speed of around 140kph. But sometimes the ride can be far from comfortable as she found out in Italy this year.
“I prepared as normal for the 19 corners I was about to drive, but as I was getting down to about eight and nine I lost consciousness. The highest G-force and largest corners put pressure on me and my head flopped into my brakewomen’s hands in the back of the sled.
“Apparently I woke up 10 minutes later in the arms of an Italian medic. After this, two days of ‘no sliding’ was given by the medical staff and I missed a race. Devastated, both myself and my brakewomen were left to assist on race day and cheer on the rest of the team, whilst I must say having a pretty sore head and body.”
Last July, the first stage of testing took place for Kerry to be a part of the 2010-11 Great Britain bobsleigh team.
It involved a 30m sprint, a flying 60m sprint and a maximum push time on the push track at Bath University.
The push track is a simulation of the start of a bobsleigh track, where you have to push the bobsleigh and get in as fast as possible. There are standards that have to be achieved and these increase every year towards the Olympics.
The scores achieved in July are recorded and eight weeks later the main testing takes place, again at Bath University. For each test you are allowed only three attempts and you must meet all standards at this point to be considered for the team.
Race months follow from November through to February and every weekend there is at least one race to compete in somewhere in the world.
Kerry said: “My top results for this season were a 10th and 11th in Switzerland in January and a 14th in December last year. I am really pleased with them especially due to the high level of competition, this year being the first on the Olympic cycle in preparation for the Sochi games in 2014.
“In May I am detached to the Falklands until September and while I am missing some valuable practice on the facilities here I’ve heard I can get plenty of training done down there and aim to be in great shape on my return.”
To find out more about bobsleighing, email GBbob sleighkerry@ymail.com
By Charlotte Hester