British pair pay heavy price for trying to make up too much ground

Minichiello lost control of her sled on a curve and it flipped over before sliding down the track with the 31-year-old and brake-woman Gillian Cooke trapped inside.

The pair emerged from the sled shaken but not seriously hurt. They did not contest the fourth and final run because Cooke sustained a minor leg injury in the accident.

Sheffield-based Minichiello said: "We're devastated. It's everything we've been training for and working for for the past 15 years.

"After yesterday we just had to go for it. We knew it was going to take everything we had but we just lost it.

"We just pushed a little bit too much. We just let it ride a bit too much. We came out of curve 11 and just pulled it and it tipped. That's it."

Minichiello already had too much ground to make up in order to challenge for medal, after a disappointing first pair of runs left her and Cooke languishing in 10th place overnight.

Paula Walker and Kelly Thomas, who stood 14th after the first two heats, improved to a creditable 11th place finish, 3.90 seconds behind the winners, Kaillie Humphries and Heather Moyes of Canada.

Minichiello added: "We were really pleased to see how well Paula and Kelly did. It's a tough track but that's no excuse because it was the same for everyone.

"It's been a really intense few months and now we're going to go back to the village and chill out."

Minichiello was not the only pilot to crash on her final run. Russians Olga Fedorova and Yulia Timofeeva followed the Britons down the track and also tipped their bob before climbing out unharmed.

Then Germany 2 pilot Cathleen Martini, starting fourth, also crashed after losing brake-woman Romy Logsch out of the back of the sled and over-turning midway down the course.

Their plight helped the Canadians, with Humphries and Moyes maintaining their lead to take gold while team-mates Helen Upperton and Shelley-Ann Brown leap-frogged USA2 pair Erin Pac and Elana Meyers for silver.

Chemmy Alcott finished in 27th place in the women's giant slalom after the delayed second run was completed at a foggy Whistler Creekside.

Alcott, 25th after her first run on Wednesday, posted a time of one minute 17.53 seconds for a combined time of 2:29.94.

The 27-year-old Londoner was 2.83 seconds off 20-year-old Viktoria Rebensburg, of Germany, who was sixth after her first run but claimed a surprise gold medal after completing her second run in 1:11.64 for a combined time of 2:27.11.