The British four-man Bobsleigh team, who are based at the University of Bath, are lying in seventh place after the first two of four runs at the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics.
A time of 55.26secs put the GBR1 team tenth after the first run and they were just 0.01 slower in their second run to move up the standings, with a Canada 3 crash helping them on their way.
The Brits are still very much in medal contention, lying 0.18 seconds behind Germany 1 in third, with just 0.10 seconds separating fourth and eighth place.
Leaders Russia are 0.34 ahead of the British quartet.
Jackson, who comes from Trowbridge, is joined by Stuart Benson, Bruce Tasker and Joel Fearon to complete the GBR1 quartet.
They came into the Olympics as European Champions after winning in Germany last month.
"I didn't think the first run was overly bad," said Jackson.
"The second was a little bit better but the time was similar. The track degrades very quickly here.
"We're still only three tenths of a second off the lead and we're good. Are we out of the medals? We'll just have to see how the next two runs go.
"It's going to be good racing because it's just hundredths of a second in it. I'm in the best shape I can be but am I in the shape I'd like to be? I'd like to be running two tenths quicker but I don't think I could ask for anything more."
Tasker added: "It's been a tense day but we've managed to keep calm."
The GBR2 quartet of Lamin Deen, John Baines, Andrew Matthews and Ben Simons are lying in a tie for 18th place.
They followed up a first run of 55.91 with a second attempt of 55.60.
"We always aim to be within a tenth of the world's best on the start," said Baines. "That was our aim and we met it today.
"Andrew has stepped in over the last few weeks and really stood up to the mark."
The final two runs take place at 9.30am and 11am tomorrow morning.
