PATSCHERKOFEL, Jan 22 - Marije VAN HUIGENBOSCH (NED) and Sanne DEKKER (NED) met at an athletics competition in August, 2011, where they were both running the 100 m sprint.

Neither could have expected that five months later, they would win a Gold medal in the Two-Woman Bobsleigh competition at the Innsbruck 2012 Winter Youth Olympic Games.

Driver VAN HUIGENBOSCH remembers what she thought when she first saw DEKKER at the athletics competition.

“I just looked and said, ‘Wait, she’s big, she’s fast, let’s go get her [to be my brakewoman]',” VAN HUIGENBOSCH said.

The two 18 year olds finished first on Sunday at the Olympic Sliding Centre with a total time of 1 minute, 51.62 seconds, which was 0.33 seconds ahead of the Silver medallists from Great Britain.

The British Bobsleigh team of Mica MCNEILL and Jazmin SAWYERS went from fourth place after the first run to claim Silver with a time of 1:51.95.

Another Dutch team, comprised of Kimberley BOS and Mandy GROOT, took Bronze in 1:52.15 on the final day of competition at the Games.

“Before [the Games] we didn’t have the idea of winning Gold,” brakewoman GROOT said.

“I made a little mistake in the seventh turn, and we lost so much time there,” driver BOS said.

With tears rolling down her face, VAN HUIGENBOSCH was the first to hug her Dutch teammates after their run.

“There is always just a little competition going on between all of us,” VAN HUIGENBOSCH said. “We know each other very well.”

VAN HUIGENBOSCH and DEKKER have only trained together for six weeks, but they consider themselves close friends.

As brakewoman, DEKKER feels comfortable enough with her driver to speed blindly down courses with her head tucked inside the bobsleigh.

“It’s a very, very weird experience at first,” DEKKER said. “But I trust her to come down safely, so I just sit in comfortably and relax.”

The duo ranked second after the first run but were able to shave 0.46 seconds off their first run time with a second run speed of 118 km an hour.

The British Silver medallists could barely believe the way they roared back form fourth to claim a spot on the podium, with a super second run.

"To pick herself back up and drive like that, it was incredible," SAWYERS said of her teammate's second-run driving.

"We've got a medal, and we're absolutely ecstatic that we've come second."

YIS IOC Young Reporter Nicholas Olivier/tb/lm