Bree Walker has continued her super start to the Winter Olympic season by winning gold in the IBSF monobob World Cup race in Lillehammer.
The sliding athlete led the way on a superb weekend for Australia's winter sport athletes, with snowboarders Adam Lambert and Josie Baff both winning bronze in the cross event in Cervinia, while 16-year-old big air athlete claimed her first World Cup medal in Steamboat Springs.
That came after 15-year-old skier Indra Brown won a bronze on debut in the Secret Garden half-pipe on Saturday in China.
Walker set a track record of 53.86 seconds in the first run, beating her own record by more than a tenth of a second to become the first monobob driver to dip under 54 seconds for the 1,365 metre track.
Her top speed on course was a whopping 123.30 kilometres per hour.
It is Walker's first win of the IBSF World Cup season and fourth of her career and continues her love affair with the Lillehammer track, where she has now won three years in a row.
"Yeah, I guess three in a row," Walker said.
"I'm really happy with today's drive. I think this is probably one of the best races I've been able to put together."
Walker topped the timing charts on both of her two runs to take the win by 0.44 seconds, an absolute age in a sport where victory can be measured by hundredths of a second.
"I love Lillehammer, we spend a lot of time here," Walker said.
"To be able to walk away with the win — by that much too — is really crazy.
"The field is so strong this year, so I'm just stoked with that result."
Walker's victory moves her up to second in the overall monobob standings behind German legend Laura Nolte, where the Aussie has finished overall in the past two seasons.
The 33-year-old has recorded third and fourth place finishes in the opening two rounds of the season, missing out on a medal last time out in Innsbruck by just 0.02 seconds despite dealing with a back injury.
"I'm really happy with my driving, it's been very consistent this year, and my pushing has been going really well," Walker said.
"In my last race, I actually hurt my back in the first heat, so I couldn't really finish it off in the second.
"But we did some really good rehab and prep over the last two weeks, so, yeah, super happy with today's race."
It is enough to put a smile on anyone's face just 54 days out from the Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics, even Canadian coach Pierra Lueders.
"Did he smile?" Walker asked, laughing.
"That's funny. Yeah, if the coach is happy, then I'm definitely happy."
Walker will compete in the two-woman bobsleigh event on the same track alongside brakewoman Kiara Reddingius on Sunday.
Walker and Reddingius have finished 18th in both their previous two World Cup races this season.
The World Cup circuit next heads to Latvia's Sigulda track for the final World Cup before Christmas, with events in Winterberg, St Mortiz and Altenberg to come before the Winter Olympics in Italy in February.
Ally Hickman, 16, claims maiden World Cup bronze
In the USA, teenage snowboarder Ally Hickman earned her first ever FIS World Cup medal with a bronze at the snowboard big air event in Steamboat Springs, Colorado.
The Matraville snowboarder, aged just 16, produced the highest score of anyone in the first of her three runs, her frontside 1080 with mute and tail grabs earning her 88.00 points.
With the best two of her three runs counting for the overall score, Hickman made two attempts at a backside 720 with melon grab, the second of which earned her 74.25 points to claim the bronze.
South Korea's Seungeun Yu overhauled Hickman's score with a phenomenal backside double 1080 mute grab that scored her 86.50, which she backed up with a similarly impressive frontside double cork 1080 indy for a score of 86.75 with her third and final run.
But that was not enough to hold of charging Japanese veteran, two-time Olympian and slopestyle world champion Miyabi Onitsuka, whose cab 1260 mute on the third run earned her a whopping 91.00 points to claim victory by just 0.75 points overall.
It was a double success for Australia, with 21-year-old Meila Stalker also qualifying for the final, finishing in seventh place.
And there was plenty in the tank for Stalker who, after missing her first attempt at a frontside 1080 mute, earned a score of 82.00 at the second attempt, the third-best score of anyone in the final round.
It was the second time both Hickman and Stalker reached a big air final this season following their performances at the Secret Garden big air in China in November where they finished seventh and fifth respectively.
Double bronze for Aussie snowboard cross racers
There was double success for Australia at the opening FIS Snowboard cross event in Cervinia, with Adam Lambert and Josie Baff both winning bronze medals.
Baff, who laid down the second-fastest time in qualifying, went out hard in each of her knockout heats with great success.
However, a minor mistake on the first turn dragged the 22-year-old Aussie back into the pack, where some incredibly tight racing saw her pipped to silver by Italian rider Michela Moioli.
"Over the heats I was pretty fast out of the start and that was my plan, I went away from the start and defended the whole way down. I felt I was doing that really well," Baff said.
"I made a mistake in the big final where I folded in turn one, and my plan had to change and adapt.
"That was super-tight racing. Then we came out of the second-last turn and all four of us were together, boards were hitting boards, and it was pretty crazy actually.
"But I'm super-happy to have a podium for the first race of the season."
Mia Clift (13th) went out at the quarterfinal stage, while Amber Essex (24th) and Abbey Wilson (DNF) were unable to progress past qualifying.
In the men's race, Lambert also claimed the final spot on the podium as French brothers Jonas and Aidan Chollet fought for gold.
"I knew I was going to get out fourth or third, because those two Chollet brothers are fast as," Lambert said.
"But I had a plan, I had a line that I'd been running all day and I knew it was fast.
"Unfortunately I came up a bit too fast on them in turn five and I couldn't get in the draft, but I'm so stoked with third."
Cameron Bolton (14th) went out at the quarterfinal stage of racing, while James Johnstone (47th), Declan Dent (48th) and Cameron Turner (52nd) did not progress past qualifying.
