Brighton native Hallie Clarke continued to improve and saved her best slide for last in her Winter Olympics debut at the Milano Cortina games in Italy.
With her grandparents and a community watch party happening in Brighton for the final two heats of the women’s skeleton event Saturday afternoon, Clarke posted a personal-best time of 57.98 seconds in her fourth run. It was the 11th fastest time out of 25 competitors in that final heat.
Overall, with the times of her four heats combined, the 21-year-old Clarke placed 19th. She had a challenging first day Friday, starting off with 58.51 seconds in Heat 1 which was the 21st fastest time. She then improved slightly with a time of 58.22, which was the 19th fastest time in Heat 2.
In her first slide Saturday, Clarke posted a time of 58.31 which was the 17th fastest result of Heat 3.
Clarke’s time in Heat 4 was only 0.7 seconds off the pace set by winner Janine Flock of Austria in that final attempt down the track at the Cortina Sliding Centre.
Flock claimed the gold with the lowest cumulative time of 3 minutes 49.02 seconds. In four Olympic Games, this was Flock’s first medal won.
Clarke’s 19th placing had a total time of 3:53.02. She was right behind Canadian teammate Jane Channell who placed 18th (3:52.96).
Clarke has previously won the World Championship and World Junior Championship in women’s skeleton.
In a story on Team Canada’s Olympic website Saturday, Clarke said while she was “a bit disappointed” by the Olympic result, she added “I didn’t have expectations for myself coming into this. I was a bit hard on myself, but I’m really proud of how I picked it up today and I had a huge PB on the last run.”
Clarke said she’s looking ahead to the 2030 Olympics in the French Alps.
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Author: Pete Fisher
Has been a photojournalist for over 30-years and have been honoured to win numerous awards for photography and writing over the years. Best selling author for the book Highway of Heroes - True Patriot Love
