Former heptathlete and pole vaulter Fiona Harrison, 29, was driving the sled when the accident happened during a training run for the ongoing British Championships in Winterberg.Harrison, who has competed at Europa and World Cup level, has been involved in bobsleigh for two years, following an established line of athletes who have transferred from track and field. She was originally a brakeman for world champion Nicola Minichiello before moving into driving.Harrison is under observation for head injuries while brakeman Serita Shone, who also switched to the sport from heptathlon, is in a serious conditions after suffering spinal injuries.”I can confirm two of British Bobsleigh’s development athletes were in a training accident in Germany,” said British team performance director Gary Anderson.”Both athletes are currently receiving medical attention in hospital in Germany and their families have been informed.”My focus is now on the two athletes concerned, and their families, and I won’t be making any further comment at this stage.”
Daily Archives: October 27, 2011
On a pole and a prayer
Niagara’s Wurster goes for Gold at Pan Am Games…
Canada — The dust particles slowly built up on the tip of young Jason Wurster’s index finger.
On a dusty television screen in the heart of Chippawa in the 1980s, Wurster plopped down and watched his fictional heroes gambit through a dangerous laser hallway.
Wurster would trace clean lines through a thin layer of dust to outline crisp red laser beams on the glowing box.
Fast forward two decades and Wurster is doing something similar to his childhood heroes: avoiding a bar as one of Canada’s top pole vaulters.
On Friday, Wurster, 27, will vault himself up as an ordinary Canadian athlete, but he’s hoping to come down a champion.
He is the lone Canadian competing in the men’s pole vault event at the 2011 Pan American Games in Guadalajara, Mexico.
Wurster’s personal best height is 5.50 meters (18-0) — the equivalent of a two-story building — in both indoor and outdoor pole vault.
“Jason’s got a Canadian record in him,” said coach George Krupa, 61. “If you’ve ever seen him jump, you know he’s always snapping or breaking poles. They bend 90 degrees, but he’s bending them like crazy. The faster you are, the higher you jump. It’s an extreme sport.”
read more http://www.niagarathisweek.com/sports/article/1232945–on-a-pole-and-a-prayer
