Australian sliders claimed second and sixth place in the opening event of the Skeleton World Cup in Austria.

The hard work is paying off for Australia's young skeleton team with the ice sliders achieving their best day of competition on the opening day of the World Cup season.

Emma Lincoln-Smith and Lucy Chaffer filled second and sixth places at Igls in Austria.

Lincoln-Smith, 26, led after the first of two runs, but couldn't match the speed of Russian slider Olga Potylitsina on run two, and finished just 0.23 seconds behind to claim the silver medal.

Lincoln-Smith beat the first three placegetters in last season's Skeleton World Cup - German Anja Huber, Great Britain's Shelley Rudman, and Canadian Melissa Hollingsworth.

"I was really pleased with the result. I knew I was capable of the win if I stuck to my game plan," she said in a statement released by the Olympic Winter Institute of Australia.

Chaffer set the second quickest time overall on the second run, to move from 11th to sixth place, easily her best World Cup result.

"It was a pretty good day," Chaffer said. "My first run was going well until corner nine and then it slipped away from me.

Lincoln-Smith's silver medal equals the best result by an Australian in skeleton, which Michelle Steele achieved in Japan in 2007.