ALEASHA Kiddle says the public response to a funding plea by the British Bobsleigh women’s team has only added further drive to her determination to get to the Winter Olympic Games in South Korea next year.

The 25-year-old from Braintree has had her place in Britain’s team for the start of the IBSF World Cup season confirmed this week after an impressive testing session last week and she is delighted that she will get the chance to impress coaches as they look to make their Games selections.

However, the women’s team has been rocked over the past week with the news that, just five months before the Olympics, the British Bobsleigh and Skeleton Association (BBSA) has removed funding for them, despite keeping funding in place for three men’s teams on its performance programme.

The BBSA has said it is focusing its funding on “winning medals” but its move has forced the women’s team to fund their own push for Olympic glory.

Driver Mica McNeill, who Kiddle has seen considerable success with as a brakewoman over the last few years, began a crowdfunding drive since the BBSA’s decision was confirmed and they have already met their £30,000 target. It is a reaction that Kiddle said was “overwhelming” and with her place in the World Cup squad now assured, it has only added to her determination to make sure she is in the team in Pyeongchang for the Games in February.

She said: “Initially, the funding decision was hard to take and it’s taken a long time to take it all in as £30,000 is a lot of money to find.

“But the coaches and senior staff have been really supportive and have tried to help us as much as possible and are thinking of ways that they can help us and the men’s squad have helped us as well.

“But Mica has been at the forefront of driving us forward.

“She has said that she’s going to the Olympics no matter what and having that confidence is helping all of us to think that we can do it.

“Doing it by ourselves and knowing that hundreds of people are supporting us, whether giving us big amounts or small, is such a boost.

“The support we have had has been overwhelming.

“From the messages that we’ve had, I think people outside the group have been more outraged than we have.

“It’s like people have thought ‘this is not OK and we can’t let it happen’.

“People have been amazing and we’ve already made the £30,000 that we need to get a team to the Olympics.

“That may sound a lot but while bobsleigh isn’t the most high-profile of sports, it’s certainly an expensive one and some of the places we have to go - like St Moritz - aren’t cheap to be in and it’s just amazing the help we’ve had.

“We are definitely confident we can now get a women’s team to the Olympics so I’m delighted to have got selected for the World Cup.

“It feels like we are so close but we now need to focus on preparing for the start of the season.

“We are still training so hard and working really hard with the coaches to finalise plans.

“I’ve tried to keep everything normal but it’s been a bit crazy since the selection.

“That went really well and I came second so I have automatic selection for the start of the World Cup season.

“They have said that if we can raise the money then they want to keep us going as far as possible so it’s great that I’m in the World Cup squad for the first three races and we’ll then have another testing session, with another to follow that, which will be the Olympic selection.

“The first race is in November and while the men will be heading out on October 4 to Whistler (in Canada) we’ll look to head out a week or two before so Mica can get back to racing tracks.”

The women’s bobsleigh team funding page can be found at www.gofundme.com/teammcneill