Feb 9, 2010

Vancouver (AFP) - Australia's women two-man bobsleigh team of Astrid Loch-Wilkinson and Cecilia McIntosh were given the green light for the Olympic Games on Tuesday after successfully appealing against their exclusion.

The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) ruled in favour of the Australian Olympic Committee's case that the International Bobsleigh Federation (FIBT) had made a mistake by not following its own Olympic qualification and selection guidelines regarding continental representation.

However, rather than including the Australian sled at the expense of another team, CAS also recommended to the International Olympic Committee that a 21st sled be included into the existing field.

Although the decision is yet to be ratified by the IOC, the ruling ensures that the 20th sled qualified, that of Irish pair Aoife Hoey and Claire Bergin, will remain in the field, as suggested by the AOC's representatives at the CAS hearing.

Driver Loch-Wilkinson and brakeman McIntosh had been waiting nervously at a Vancouver hotel for days, and particularly the 20 hours between the end of the five-hour CAS hearing and the notification of the panel's recommendation.

The first heats of the women's bobsleigh are on Tuesday, February 23.