Bobsleigh

WINTERBERG, GERMANY - The women's national rugby team is holding a spot for Heather Moyse heading into the 2010 World Cup, and considering her remarkable strength and physical conditioning, well, is there any way at 37 she could hang on long enough to represent Canada in rugby sevens when it makes it debut in the Summer Olympics in 2016?

"The only time I think about it is when I think, why is not in 2012 instead of 2016?" said the brakeman on Canada's women's bobsleigh team, who doubles as a fullback and wingback in the national rugby program. "London. How perfect would that be?

"But, you know, I barely know what I'm doing next year. The thought is super-exciting, but I will not be staying in elite level athletics until then. I'd like to have time to, you know, develop a relationship and maybe have a family. If I feel like I need to test myself ..... maybe I would come out of retirement. It just depends where I am in life."

Wherever she finds herself in life, the Summerside native, who has been an academic and sports all-rounder for most of her life, will be a success. In the meantime, she'll likely be helping Canada break start records in World Cup bobsleigh on the way to the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver. This past weekend in Winterberg, Moyse and pilot Kaillie Humphries - herself a former brakeman who is in her fourth year as a driver - settled for fifth place in the women's World Cup event despite breaking the track record in one of the runs. It was the second time in four races that the pair have laid waste to a record.

"There is a bit of a chemistry between myself and Kaillie," said Moyse, perhaps sending a message to the Canadian team that is rotating brakemen and pilots to come up with the best combination for Vancouver. "It's great having a pilot who can push like that. My job is to finish it off, get it [the sled] going as much as possible. It's not just the best times. It's the velocity going into track."

Humphries, of Calgary, finished 0.86 seconds behind the pace set by winner Cathleen Martini of Germany. Helen Upperton, of Calgary, and Jennifer Ciochetti of Edmonton placed seventh while Amanda Stepenko of Edmonton and Amanda Moreley of Surrey, B.C., finished 12th.

Canada's two two-man bobsleigh teams had a rough day. Pierre Lueders of Edmonton pulled his groin and could barely make it into his sled in the second run, finishing 19th. The day did not start providentially for Lueders, when brakeman Jesse Lumsden came down with the flu and was replaced by Neville Wright.

Lyndon Rush of Humboldt, Sask., was 11th, 0.72 seconds behind winner Beat Hefti, a Swiss pilot who hit the finish line on his side after rolling coming out of the final corner in the track. It was the same corner in which American Todd Hays sustained a concussion in training and the same corner in which Humphries caught air in the women's race.

"I thought I had a pretty good day for Winterberg, because I don't really know how to go fast here," said Rush, who is still searching for the right touch in his new two-man sled. The circuit goes to Altenberg, Germany, this week, where the air likely will be colder and the ice harder - much more to Rush's liking.

Moyse is coming off a shoulder injury suffered playing rugby, and she admits breaking the track record in the first race in Park City, Utah, pretty much set up her year. "Everything looked good on paper, but you don't know until you're on the track," Moyse said. "That start was nice. It showed me I was where I needed to be."

Moyse is less concerned about injuring the shoulder pushing a sled than, say, tackling.

"The test will be when I return to rugby 15s," the 31-year-old graduate of the University of Waterloo said. "Right now, I mostly need to use it in a linear direction. I'm not tackling somebody or reaching out to grab a jersey."

Moyse, who was the leading scorer in the 2008 Hong Kong Rugby Sevens tournament and was Canada's only all-star in the 2006 women's rugby World Cup, has been told by the rugby program to not rush back after the Vancouver Olympics.

The rugby World Cup isn't until Aug. 20. To say she's appreciative is an understatement.

"They've told me they're leaving the door open for me," Moyse said. "I can only do that if I dedicate myself to rugby for five to six months, 100 per cent of the time, without my shoulder getting in the way."

You might say her success this winter has been a start.