Jamaica qualifies women's bobsleigh team

Jamaica are sending their first women's bobsleigh team to the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, 30 years after the fabled 'Cool Runnings' debut in Calgary.

Thirty years after the nation's fabled debut in Calgary, Jamaica are sending their first women's bobsleigh team to the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang next month.

Jazmine Fenlator, who was a member of the United States team four years ago in Sochi, will pilot the Jamaican sled having switched to the country of her father's birth in 2015.

Fenlator, who will be joined by brakewoman Carrie Russell, a former world athletics relay gold medallist, will be targeting a top-10 finish after coming seventh in the Winterberg World Cup last month.

Jamaica's exploits in 1988 inspired the hit movie 'Cool Runnings' and turned its bobsleigh squad into cult heroes. The men's team went on to participate in five of seven subsequent Games, but will not be represented in Pyeongchang.

Jamaica Bobsleigh and Skeleton Federation president Chris Stokes told the Jamaica Gleaner: "This is the 30th anniversary of the first team to qualify in 1988, and we are glad to have a women's team qualify."

Stokes was a member of the men's team which famously overturned on their fourth and final run down the Olympic track in Calgary.