Terrifying: John Jackson and Dan Money
Britain"s two-man bobsleigh team John Jackson and Dan Money walked away from aterrifying crash during heats at the Whistler Sliding Centre.
Jackson and Money lost control of their sled five curves from the end of theirheat one run and it overturned.Money was thrown out of the back as the sled flipped over and slid down thetrack on his back.
Pilot Jackson was trapped inside the upturned car until it came to a haltfurther down the run.
Jackson was able to climb out of the sled when it came to rest, helped out bytrack officials.Money, who suffered a gash on his left calf, said: "The track"s fast, thefastest track in the world but it"s a technical track.
"If you get it wrong at ahigh speed it can go very wrong."
Jackson had bloody scrapes underneath his shoulder blades after being draggedalong the ice while stuck inside his overturned sled.
He said: "I can"t wear my race jersey because my back is stinging."
The British pair hugged each other in relief when they met up and Money climbedinto the grandstand to reassure family and friends that he was ok.The Australian pairing of Jeremy Rollerston and Duncan Pugh also suffered acrash minutes after the British duo.
Their sled also flipped over and they too seemed to have escaped relativelyunhurt.The British and Australian sleds were disqualified from the second heat havingfailed to finish their first runs.
Battle scars: John Jackson hugs American sledder Bill Schuffenhauer
The Liechtenstein pairing of Michael Klingler and Thomas Duerr also lostcontrol of their sled but remained in the competition after crossing thefinishing line.The start of heat two was delayed because of the crashes.
The latest incidents are bound to raise concerns about the safety of the trackalthough earlier today Games organisers stressed that the bobsleigh federation(FIBT) were happy with it despite several injuries to athletes during training.
Swiss brake-man Daniel Egger suffered a spine injury after crashing during apractice heat on Friday, prompting he and driver Daniel Schmid to withdraw fromthe competition.
And American women"s bobsledder Shauna Rohbock has branded the track "stupidfast".
Ordeal: John Jackson and Dan Money"s bobsled
But Tim Gayda, VANOC"s vice president of Sport, said: "The FIBT is extremelyhappy with the track and happy to race on it. We listen to them, they are theexperts."
Safety concerns have been heightened following the tragic death of Georgianluger Nodar Kumaritashvili in training on the same track.
But Gayda believes everything that could be done has been done to protectathletes.
"To make it 100 per cent safe you would need to put the track in a tube and that isnot what the sport is about," he said.
"My heart goes out to Nodar. It is something that has hit us all. But theincident that happened was extremely unfortunate and something no-one could havepredicted.
"We"ve always maintained the track is safe. Both federations (FIBT and lugefederation FIL) are part of the design process.
"It was they who recommended the designer we used. Both federations signed offon the design of the track."
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