EDINBURGH'S latest Olympic hopeful Gillian Cooke is enjoying getting to grips with her new sport of bobsleighing.
One of Scotland's most accomplished and talented all-round sportswomen before she even attempted her new passion just a few short months ago, the 26-year-old Watsonian could, in just over a year's time, be competing for Britain in the Winter Olym
pics in Vancouver and nine months later for Scotland in the 2010 Commonwealth Games in Delhi.
"2010 could be quite a year," agrees Cooke, who is quick to point out that she has a lot of work to put in first as selection is by no means guaranteed for either event.
In fact, she is not even in the Scottish Athletics Commonwealth Games squad, though she has competed in two previous Games, in Manchester in 2002 in the pole vault and Melbourne in 2006 in the long jump. She was fourth in the triple jump in the inaugural Commonwealth Youth Games at Meadowbank in 2000.
It is in the long jump that she has made the biggest mark, being equal first in the Scottish all-time list with a leap of 6.43 metres, a Scottish indoor record which she would dearly like to improve on outdoors.
But an advert on Facebook last August looking for potential trialists for the position of brakewoman behind Britain's No.1 driver Nicola Minichiello, who was ninth in the 2006 Turin Olympics with Jackie Davies as the brakewoman, changed everything. Team GB were looking for someone who could save them precious fractions of a second at the start and put them in with a shout of an Olympic medal.
"I decided to give it a try," said Cooke, who turned out to be something of a natural in the art of pushing off, sprinting and jumping on to what is little more than a metal tray which can generate up to five or six Gs and speeds of up to 90mph as it careers down a narrow channel. When Cooke finished her first run down the track at Lake Placid, the toughest World Cup course in use, everyone looked to see how she would react at the end.
"They were very relieved when I got out and wanted to go again, which was what they were looking for," she said.
"I just love it, I love the whole sport, the travelling, the competing, the lifestyle, it's everything I like doing," added Cooke, who was fastest in the trial over two runs at the specially-built push tracks at Bath and Camp Hill in Yorkshire and was quickly taken on the team, albeit along with the sitting tenant Davies.
The athlete has also been told by her coaches not to lose any weight, as this is important to maintaining balance on the sled.
Cooke's first World Cup race was in Altenberg, Germany where she and Minichiello were seventh (and fifth fastest starters) and she was then sixth in Isles in Austria and fourth fastest on the first run, just one 800th of a second down on the leaders.
Davies was on the brake for the next race at Winterberg and the teammates were meant to have race-off two days before the fourth World Cup event in Cesana in Italy but the whole event had to be cancelled due to snow, which was 10ft deep in places.
Despite the rivalry for the cherished place, Cooke is full of praise for the others in the seven-strong team of three athletes, two ice coaches, physio and team manager (plus a psychologist who "nips out every so often").
"The team have been fantastic, teaching me everything," she said.
They are set to go to Canada to have their first run on the new Olympic track, which is reputedly the fastest in the world and one of the most technically demanding.
Cooke said: "Some of the Canadians have been clocked at 90mph, which is fairly speedy, and the track only deviates by three metres each way from a straight line. It's quite demanding and there have been a lot of crashes but some of that may be scaremongering."
Despite the speed and the glamour, the sport does have its tedious side – not least the maintenance chores to keep the sleds in top condition. Apart from learning to lift and load the 180kg fibreglass sled, which can cost anything from £20,000 to £50,000, Cooke has had to learn to use repair tools and the team can spend anything from half an hour to two hours before and after a race polishing the runners with sandpaper.
"Each little mark on the blade could cost 100th of a second and a big one a tenth," she said.
"As well as a helmet sponsor we have a sandpaper sponsor (3M) – you start with a rough grade and finish with a fine grade like tissue paper – there are eight or nine grades of paper and we can use all of them before race day to get up to race spec."
Cooke's other chore is one she actually enjoys – writing up the team blog after races. "The coach does the report and I write it up," she said.
There are still four World Cup races to go this winter plus the World Championships at Lake Placid, USA, on February 20 and 21 for which the top six qualify.
Team GB are due to race in Konigsberg, Germany, on Saturday. They will then head to San Moritz for the European Championships, return for four days before flying to Vancouver for an international training week, followed by Salt Lake City and then Lake Placid.
"As the bob is on first I may get four days in New York for a break," said Cooke.
It sounds as if summer athletics, which she will be encouraged to resume by her winter coaches, will be a piece of cake in comparison.
