BEAR HOLLOW -- One, two. Gold, silver.

That was the plan going into the race -- always the plan anytime two teams are racing for the same flag.But it doesn't always end up that way.

Four women from the United State bobsled team made it happen Sunday. On the same track, in the same race, on the same day, the U.S. went gold-silver in the second and final day of World Cup women's bobsledding.

Jean Racine, the driver of USA I, and brakeman Jennifer Davidson, the Salt Lake woman competing in only her second race, set a track record at the Utah Winter Sports Park and won the gold. Jill Bakken, the USA II driver who recently moved to Utah to be close to the track, and brakeman Meg Henderson were only six-tenths of a second behind in second place.

The finish area was replete with lots of hugs and waving of the American flag -- and optimism that this was an auspicious start to the season and a road women sledders hope will lead them to recognition in the 2002 Olympics.

Davidson, whose path to bobsled fame has been as fast as her sled, said: "It was exciting, it was exhilarating, and right now it feels just awesome."

Before a summer training camp, the closest Davidson had been to a bobsled was the TV screen. She did well in camp, better in training and qualified to take the second seat in America's No. 1 sled.

She took her first run in a sled on Oct. 14. In her first race Saturday, her sled was second; in her second race Sunday, her sled was first.

"A silver and a gold in my first outing -- I'm pretty happy with that," Davidson said.

There were 15 sleds entered in the two-day World Cup event, the first in Utah. Cold temperatures Sunday made the track fast and tricky. One sled flipped on the first run and two on the second before righting themselves in the banging turns just before the finish.

For Great Britain driver Mary Nash and her brakeman Vicky Stenson, it was extremely disappointing. They flipped on both the first and second runs.

After, Stenson joked these weren't her first flips, nor would they be her last. On earlier flips, she knew the sled was going over. "It went airborne and it was bad," she said. "Here, I didn't know we were going over until I heard my helmet scrapping along the ice. I'm OK, but Mary's shaken up a bit."

The British shed went too high on Turn 11, went on its side in Turn 12, banged the wall a couple of times, then flipped upright going from Turns 13 to 14. Aside from bruised egos, there were no injuries in any of the accidents.

Racine said she knew coming out of the fourth turn on her first run that the run would be something special.

"Everything was just smooth. We were on today. That's the best feeling in the world when you're going down this track and you just know you're on," she said of the record-setting women's run.

On the second run, she had trouble in Turn 3, and the sled started to fishtail. Racine said it was a turn she's had trouble with before, "and I had trouble at the top again. It's one of those curves that doesn't like me very much."

Her time on the first run was 50.45 seconds, with her second run of a 51.11 resulting in a combined time of 1 minute, 41.56 seconds. Bakken's runs of 50.89 and 51.28 totaled 1:42.17.

Finishing third was the Great Britain team of Michelle Coy and Cheryl Done in a time of 1:42.41.

The third USA team of Elena Primerano and Sherri Provencal finished 11th.

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Bakken said her two runs were not her best. "I had trouble going into (Turn) 13. I sometimes go into it too early. The sled jumps up when I go in. It's a downfall I need to work on."

She admitted she did drive better Sunday. "I don't know what I did (Saturday), but I didn't drive well. I had two really bad runs," she said. "Today it came together for me. I felt a lot better. The track did start to get a little rough on the second run."

Looking ahead, Racine said she couldn't wait for the Olympics to come "because we're going to do the same thing there. This is just the beginning."

A decision on which sports will be included in the 2002 Games was supposed to be out this week but has been delayed until March. Among those vying for the opening are the women's bobsled and the men's and women's skeleton.

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