Winter Olympics: Heat goes on the Olympic ice

New Zealand's Ben Sandford has unwittingly been at the centre of a heated debate in the men's skeleton at the Vancouver Olympics.

Sandford finished 11th last night at the Whistler Sliding Centre, backing up from his 10th at Torino four years ago. A raucous home crowd and preferential home sliding opportunities helped push Canadian Jon Montgomery to gold on his final run.

He took out the race by 0.07 of a second from Latvian Martins Dukurs, who led the competition until the home straight of his final run.

The unresolved problems centre on how much time local athletes got to prepare on home Olympic tracks.

With a law degree, Sandford is the elected athlete representative to the sport's governing body, the FIBT, so discusses any contentious issues with the powers that be.

"Part of my job is to negotiate the runs that athletes get at international events. This situation is unfortunate but that's the way the sport is and hopefully there will be some changes to make it a more level playing field.

"The Canadians [like Montgomery] would have had around 250 runs here, compared to an international athlete who might have had 40.

"In saying that, we do get used to sliding with limited practice and sometimes having more runs can make you complacent. The Canadians have won just one of the six medals on offer, so maybe those extra runs don't matter."

On the track Sandford was left shrugging his shoulders after his second Olympics, despite a credible effort.

"One of the goals was to get a 52-second run which I did, but I had a bet with my coach that I could get a 52.73 and I lost [Sandford did 52.90s]. I'm disappointed to finish 11th. I came to have a crack at the medals."

A feature of his sliding was his slow starts, when he was anywhere between 20th and 23rd in the field. He made up for that with some finesse in his steering using his feet which had more than a passing resemblance to flippers. As a result, he raced up the rankings as the course unwound.

"One of the features of this track is that you have to steer a lot, and because we're not used to the track I didn't use the optimal form of guidance with the knees and shoulders. Sometimes my feet dragged a bit, but that's just the way it had to be."

In the women's event, Tionette Stoddard responded to the booming "Kiwi" chant from fans at the start to beat her initial ranking of 15th going into the event. She finished 14th, having started the day 17th. That was 6.05 seconds behind British gold medallist Amy Williams.

Stoddard benefited from consistently fast starts throughout, utilising the power in her former provincial rugby-playing legs. Those initial efforts heading into the tube saw her ranked between third and fifth.

"That did make me smile," said Stoddard. "But my coach and husband Angus [Ross] was equally pleased because that is what he's invested his time in."

She also singled out the unsung hero of the campaign - her new sled, which she borrowed from fellow Kiwi skeleton racer, Katharine Eustace.

"I bent two sets of runners on it this week but the sled is intact," said Stoddard. "I just want to reassure my team-mate, who is extremely generous. I owe her big time."

The 35-year-old says she is yet to decide on her future plans but did not rule out retirement after six years in the sport, culminating in her Olympic debut.

As for Sandford, he's keen to go part-time next season while working on a new project.

"I'll hopefully be able to develop a new sled with [fellow Vancouver Olympian] Iain Roberts, who's doing a PhD in sled design."

Roberts pulled out of the men's event heading into the final two rounds after suffering a brutal second run yesterday, leaving him 28th and last.

He had already suffered a cut to the chin and concussion during training. Doctors hadn't ruled him out of racing but yesterday he had difficulty even doing his shoelaces up, so opted out.

Of the other New Zealanders in action yesterday, Tim Cafe finished 38th of 61 entrants in alpine skiing's Super G.

Sixteen competitors failed to finish, including fellow Kiwi Ben Griffin. Cafe, who at 22 was the fifth-youngest in the field, was 5.21 seconds behind Norwegian winner Aksel Lund Svindal. Svindal edged American Bode Miller into wearing his third Olympic silver medal.

Cross-country skier Ben Koons will make his Olympic debut in the 30km pursuit today. His haemogoblin levels have reduced to within the health safety standards required for Olympic competition.