A BRITISH mother, 41, has become the first woman to descend Switzerland’s iconic Cresta Run since a 90-year ban on women tobogganists was lifted last year.

Carina Evans, an Army reservist and mother-of-two from Oxfordshire, described the experience as “exhilarating, amazing, incredible, but very scary.”

For 90 years, a ban on women has forbidden them to go down the run, but the restriction was lifted by St. Moritz Togogganning Club (SMTC) last year.

Built during the 1880s out of natural ice, the Cresta Run in St. Moritz is the most famous toboggan track in the world.

Riders use only rakes on the end of their boots to steer and brake, reaching speeds of more than 128 kmph.

The most recent of five fatalities on the run happened in 2017.

Evans had been preparing for this moment for the past two decades.

Her father, Digby Willoughby, was part of a two-man bobsleigh team that broke the world record in 1961 and he then became SMTC chief executive for 24 years.

Evans joined the 7 Rifle reservists last year and began preparing for the run.

To qualify to race the full length, she had to complete three lower runs in under 46 seconds.

“It absolutely depended on qualifying,” said Evans, who holds the British women’s record over the lower part of the course.

“I had to do consistently low times to show I was a responsible rider, and with good times.

“It has taken a long time and a lot of determination and planning to get here.

“This has been a focus for many years.”

Evans said the Army and the club “could not have been more supportive.”

After 90 years, the reason for the ban on women still remains unclear.

Gary Lowe, the current chief executive and secretary, said there was a theory that men did not want to be embarrassed by women going faster.

The only known time the rule was avoided was when a Swiss female rider was said to have gone down the run after pretending to be her husband.

Evans traveled home from St. Moritz recently to the small farm near Henley-on-Thames, where she lives with her husband Nick, a professional polo player, and their daughters Isabella, 13, and Marina, 12.

(SD-Agencies)