Codie's on the fast track to glory

CODIE BURNETT hopes her career will soon be heading downhill fast. The 18-year-old Park House School student is rapidly making a name for herself in the white-knuckle world of bobsleigh racing. Just 12 months after attending a trial for wannabe racers, Jodie is a member of the Great Britain Europa Cup squad, and has been included in the GB Road to Pyeongchang programme for the 2018 Winter Olympics in South Korea. Codie, who is studying for her PE A-level, has just returned from Europa Cup meetings in Austria and France, where she was the youngest competitor out of more than 40 racers. And next month she is off to the world-famous St Moritz venue in Switzerland, with her bobsleigh pilot Nikki McSweeney and fellow brakesman Chelsea Alagoa-Oliver. Codie’s hopes of continuing at the highest level, though, are being threatened by a lack of finance. She has to travel to Bath two or three times a week for training – and she is relying on lifts from her aunty, Tracy Hubbard, and dad Stephen because she can no longer afford her own car insurance. Codie said: “My granddad, Christopher Lovegrove, has just bought me a pair of ice spikes, which cost £350. “But a new helmet costs between £200-£700 and running spikes for training are £90.” Codie’s twin 17-year-old sisters, Shannon and Courtney, saved up to buy her an iPad. And Codie is desperate to secure finance until she gains enough competitive experience to qualify for GB funding. Codie manages all her training, competition and travelling on top of her academic studies. In the meantime, she continues to take her life in her hands every time she takes to the mountains. In fact, Codie was rushed to hospital after a 124kmh crash in Austria last month. She said: “I was lucky to escape with a bruised coccyx, and I recovered to race in France a week later. “Nikki tried to take a quicker line, but it didn’t quite work out. I didn’t realise we had crashed at first, but then the bobsleigh flipped back upright. “It wasn’t a very nice thing to happen, but at least I now have experience of crashing and will know what to do if it happens again.” While Codie is trying to break into the big time in winter sports, she already has a rich pedigree on the track. She is ranked first in the south-east over 60m and finished second in the 200m competing for Berkshire in this year’s national Inter-Counties Championships in August. It is the explosive speed of the 60m that is so crucial in bobsleigh racing. The all-important sprint at the start of the descent is vital in a sport when the difference between winning and losing is often a fraction of a second. Codie, a member of Newbury Athletic Club, said: “I have improved a lot over the year and I am getting much stronger as I have been doing weights. “Last November my PE teacher, Dan Tree, put me in for bobsleigh trials when we had to do 30m sprints and a standing long jump. “I was the fastest there so I was selected for a training camp and I haven’t looked back.” If any local companies, organisations or individuals can help Codie with funding, they can contact her on 07710-163589 or at codieburnett96@gmail.com