PAULA Walker admitted her seventh place finish in the bobsleigh World Championshps in Lake Placid has salvaged her season.

The Blackburn ace endured a trouble campaign in the World Cup series where she finished a disappointing 11th place in the overall rankings But the GB number one pilot and brakesman Gillian Cooke showed what could have been after four impressive runs on the New York course.

“I’m really very pleased with this result,” said the former St Bede’s High School pupil. “Had you asked me mid-season if a top eight was achievable, I would have not been sure.

“Thankfully we have managed to salvage the season at the end.”

Walker believes her experiences are all part of the learning curve leading up to the Winter Olympics in Sochi in two years time.

She said: “This season has been quite testing as some of the equipment hasn’t worked as we had wished – but at least it happened now rather than just before the Olympics.

“Everything we do is long sighted to achieve the best we can at Sochi 2014 so we have to go through this testing phase to figure out what works.

“As GB number one pilot the pressure does get hard sometimes but I think you need pressure to get the best out of yourself otherwise why do it.”

Walker and Cooke clocked a combined time of 3 minutes 50.60 seconds to take seventh spot, just one place out of medal positions.

But the 25-year-old is still in with a shout of a medal at Lake Placid when she links up with Krystan Bromley and Shelley Rudman – the recently crowned World Cup winner – in the team event in the early hours of today.