WINTER OLYMPICS:THE WHISTLER track was, confirmed Aoife Hoey after the completion of the women's bobsleigh event in Vancouver, the most challenging she had faced in her career, one that saw three teams crash on the second day of competition, the worst of the incidents resulting in German Romy Logsch being thrown from her sled, writes MARY HANNIGAN.

Hoey and her team-mate Claire Bergin, then, expressed both relief and delight at completing four runs on the track without any mishaps, en route to a 17th place finish out of 21 teams.

The pair came in ahead of crews from Russia and Australia, as well as the British and German teams whose challenges were ended by their crashes.

Canada took gold and silver, with the bronze going to the United States.

The winning time was 3:32.28, compared to Ireland’s 3:38.84, Hoey and Bergin’s fastest effort coming in the second heat.

“We’re thrilled to finish 17th and will hold our heads up high in the knowledge we did our best for our country on what was the fastest and toughest track we have ever encountered,” said Hoey.

“The atmosphere at the track was awesome, we decided to go for broke on each run but being careful not to crash. After all the legal fuss before the competition, we feel vindicated with the results achieved here,” she added, in reference to Australia’s challenge to Ireland’s qualification for the event.

The Australians were eliminated after the third heat. “I’m so happy we got to do the fourth run,” said Bergin, “the support we had here is fantastic.

“It’s been a rollercoaster ride, I guess. Nothing can replace being at the Olympic Games.”

Germanys Viktoria Rebensburg won a delayed giant slalom yesterday to deny the Austrian women a first Olympic gold in the Alpine discipline.

Slovenia’s Tina Maze took her second silver of the Games while Austria’s Elisabeth Goergl, the overnight leader, had to settle for her second bronze.

Austria’s men and women have dominated on the slopes over the years but the giant slalom has eluded the women since the race was first introduced at the Games in 1952. With three in the top four after Wednesday’s first run, the Austrians had looked set to end that wait but Rebensburg, lurking in sixth place, had other plans.

Ireland’s Kirsten McGarry was 50th in 2:45.20.