Go Heather!

Record run Moyse, Humphries gold-medal favourites in women’s bobsled
MARC WEBER Canwest Olympic Team
WHISTLER, B.C. – While most Canadians had their eyes on the men’s hockey team Tuesday night, Kaillie Humphries and Heather Moyse scored a hat trick at the Whistler Sliding Centre.The Canada 1 crew established themselves as favourites for Wednesday night’s women’s bobsled final, leading the field through two of four runs.Humphries and Moyse set a track start record (5.11 seconds), track speed record (146.9 km/h) and track time record (53.01 seconds) on the night.Their combined time of one minute 46.2 seconds was 13/100ths better than the unheralded Erin Pac in USA 2. Then it’s a logjam for third.Germany 2, driven by Cathleen Martini, clocked in at 1:46.60, followed by Helen Upperton and Shelley-Ann Brown in Canada 2 (1:46.62) and Germany 1 driven by Sandra Kiriasis (1:46.64).Kiriasis, 35, is attempting to defend her Olympic gold medal from Turin, and while she topped the overall World Cup standings this season, she did so without a single victory.It was her countrywoman, Martini, 27, who paced the pack with five World Cup wins.Humphries, a 24-year-old from Calgary, and Moyse, a 31-year-old from Summerside, P.E.I., have an interesting history.It was Moyse, one of the world’s best female rugby players, who parachuted in before the Turin Games and beat out Humphries - then a brakeman - for the right to push Upperton.Humphries missed out on her Olympic dream, while Moyse and Upperton missed out on the podium by 5/100ths of a second.They’ve developed an impressive chemistry. In eight World Cup races this season, the pair broke six start records and tied two others. They hit the podium four times, including a win in Altenberg, Germany.Upperton, 30, had only one podium finish this season - a second-place in Altenberg, Germany, and that was with Jenny Ciochetti on brakes.Brown, a 29-year-old from Scarborough, Ont., beat out Ciochetti for the Olympic spot and both she and Upperton flashed wrist bands with a message of support for Ciochetti to TV cameras while briefly holding down the leader’s spot in the finish area.The North American sleds are looking to put a dent in Germany’s dominance at the Whistler Sliding Centre, where they’ve won nine of 18 medals across luge, skeleton and bobsled.Track officials made what drivers called minor changes to the track over the last two days, chipping away ice through corners 11, 12 and 13 - the latter known as “50-50” - to make it safer.Two four-man sleds crashed in training Sunday, which prompted a re-evaluation of the chute.