Narracott on cusp of Australia’s 1st Olympic sliding medal

By TIM REYNOLDS
AP Sports Writer

BEIJING (AP) — Australia has never won an Olympic medal in a sliding sport. Never even been close. The country’s best result in any bobsled, skeleton or luge race was a 10th-place showing in 2010. Jaclyn Narracott is now two runs away from changing everything. The 31-year-old Brisbane native finished a distant 16th at her only other Olympic appearance four years ago. She is now the leader midway through the women’s skeleton event at the Beijing Games. Her first two runs on Friday were timed in 2 minutes, 4.34 seconds. That puts her 0.21 seconds ahead of Germany’s Hannah Neise and 0.23 seconds ahead of Germany’s Tina Hermann.