Australia's top sledder Bree Walker has just missed out on an historic monobob medal at the world championships.
The 30-year-old hurdler-turned-winter sports star finished fourth at the storied St Moritz venue on Sunday as she sought to earn her country's first-ever bobsleigh medal in the world championships' 93-year history.
As Laura Nolte dominated the two-day competition decided over four slides, Melbourne's Walker was locked in a close battle for bronze with the new champion's German compatriot Lisa Buckwitz.
The Aussie, who had finished fifth in the inaugural Olympic monobob competition in Beijing, had been only 0.14sec adrift of third-placed Buckwitz going into the final round and was confident of overhauling her for the landmark podium finish.
But though she produced her joint-best performance of the weekend, speeding down the course in 1min 11.24sec for a total time of 4:45.77, Buckwitz held her nerve to produce a fractionally-quicker performance than the Victorian on the last run to edge her for the medal by 0.2sec.
"I had a good starting position after day one, even though Breeana was pretty close, but my last run was really good and I am mega happy about my first World Championship medal as a pilot," said Buckwitz.
It was another fine effort from Walker, who continues to make huge breakthroughs in bobsledding for Australia after converting from the track where she was a fine one-lap hurdler.
When injuries wrecked her chances of progression in athletics, Walker, who cites double world 400m hurdles champ Jana Pittman as her role model, turned her attention to winter sport.
She googled to find whether there was an Australian bobsleigh team and on discovering there was, she signed up for a talent identification camp.
She still has a way to go, however, to match the top two in Sunday's competition, with Nolte, the Olympic two-woman bob gold medallist, finishing 0.40sec clear of American Kaillie Humphries, the Olympic champion in the monobob.
"Awesome. I didn't expect it, even though a medal was the goal. I thought Kaillie will dominate - but of course I didn't want to let go," said Nolte.
