A disastrous first run in Altenberg – despite positive training runs – led to a lower than expected result in the Women’s Skeleton World Championship for the Isle of Wight’s Kimberley Murray last Friday.
Kim’s season has finished on a mixed note after completing her first-ever World Chamipnships in 23rd position – somewhat adrift of her goal of finishing 12-16th but impressive nonetheless.
A big mistake on the first run proper of the competition saw the athlete, from Binstead, fall down the leaderboard.
On a positive note, the former Long Jumper produced an 11th quickest time in training.
Taking up the story, Murray, 31, explains:
“I went into the championships feeling confident as training had been coming together nicely. My last two training runs were ranked 16th and 11th in the field so I felt like I was on target to hit my goal. The weather had been very challenging all week – no two runs were in the same conditions which made training difficult and this continued to be the case throughout the race.
“Unfortunately, my first run was nothing short of a disaster. I made a big mistake in corner 9 and then also 10 and couldn’t get back on track and subsequently lost a lot of speed, coming down in 28th place – which was last.
“At this point I knew it would be almost impossible to make it to the fourth and final heat (only the top 20 get a fourth heat in a World Championships/Olympics) but I gave it my best shot over the second and third runs. These runs were my quickest of the week, including a push PB but I could not make up the deficit from the first run to move me into the top 20.
Article continues below this advertisement “I am gutted with the result, but I am still very proud to have been selected for my first World Championships. I am focussed on the big picture which is Beijing 2022 and this last week taught me some important lessons for next year in Lake Placid and hopefully Beijing in 2022.
“There are positives to take from the week so whilst I am not happy with the result I can learn from it and be stronger in the long run.”
The full results can be found at https://www.ibsf.org/en/component/events/event/500517
Island Echo is proud to be continuing to provide coverage of Kimberley’s races and wishes her all the best for the next season.
