Winter Olympics: Corcoran disappointed with 12th

New Zealand skeleton racer Louise Corcoran bemoaned her lack of aggression after finishing 12th at the Winter Olympics in Turin this morning (NZ time).

Corcoran, who was fourth-quickest in qualifying yesterday, couldn't match it with the best in Europe down the tricky Cesana track.

Her combined time after two runs of two minutes 3.09 seconds left her ahead of just three others in the 15-strong field.

The 26-year-old was ninth after her first run, clocking 1min 1.06sec but slipped three further places following a second run of 1min 02.03sec.

"I'm a bit disappointed with that," the Wanaka rider said.

She was hoping to finish in the top half of the field but had learned a valuable lesson.

"I was too cautious, too concerned about being in control. I needed to let it run."

There were no crashes on a track which had claimed many victims during the luge races.

The comprehensive winner was Swiss Maya Pedersen, 33, who had the two best runs of the day, including a sub-1min performance on the first leg, to win with a combined time of 1min 59.83sec.

She handed Switzerland their first gold medal of the Games.

Meanwhile, the New Zealand men's curling team suffered another close loss when they went down 7-9 to Switzerland.

The team of skip Sean Becker, Lorne de Pape, Hans Frauenlob, Dan Mustapic and Warren Dobson led 3-2 and 5-4 early in the game before slipping behind in a tight encounter.

They have now lost all five of their matches to sit in last place in the 10-team competition and are well out of semifinal contention with four rounds remaining.

- NZPA