There had by no means been a three-way tie for the win in any World Cup skeleton race for the reason that sport was added to the circuit in 1986.
IGLS, Austria — China received. So did Britain. So did Germany. And with that, the World Cup skeleton circuit had a race not like another in its historical past.
Geng Wenqiang gave China its first World Cup skeleton win on Friday — a part of a historic three-way tie for the highest spot. Geng, Britain’s Matt Weston and Germany’s Christopher Grotheer all completed two runs in 1 minute, 46.04 seconds.
There had by no means been a three-way tie for the win in any World Cup skeleton race for the reason that sport was added to the circuit in 1986.
“It’s the perfect feeling,” Weston mentioned.
Weston was Britain’s first World Cup males’s skeleton race winner since Kristian Bromley in January 2008. Grotheer is the two-time defending world champion, although this was solely the second World Cup race win of his profession. And Geng’s first win got here in his twentieth profession World Cup begin, plus ensured that he’ll be thought-about a medal favourite on the Beijing Olympics in February.
The Chinese language have by no means been a significant participant within the sliding sports activities, which have historically been dominated by European and North American international locations. Geng joined the World Cup circuit in 2017, with hopes of discovering his stride in time for the 2022 Video games.
For the Individuals within the males’s skeleton race, it was the tip of a wild week.
Austin Florian was twentieth and John Daly completed twenty seventh, capping per week the place each examined optimistic for COVID-19 and weren’t positive if they might be allowed to compete. Florian was cleared to race on Thursday; Daly wasn’t cleared till 20 minutes earlier than Friday morning’s race time.
They wanted the race to build up factors towards Olympic qualification. The U.S. will nominate its Olympic skeleton staff in mid-January, and qualification is basically primarily based on worldwide level standings.
“It’s been a extremely tense week,” USA Skeleton coach Tuffy Latour mentioned. “We didn’t know if it had unfold to anybody else on the staff, and if or when Austin and John would have the ability to race. Austin was in a position to get sooner or later of coaching, and John didn’t have any days of coaching this week. I’m glad they had been in a position to race in the present day, and that we’re in a position to transfer ahead after a extremely arduous week.”
Within the ladies’s race later Friday, Russia’s Elena Nikitina obtained the win with a two-run time of 1:47.83. Kimberley Bos of the Netherlands was second in 1:48.03, and Italy’s Valentina Margaglio obtained her first World Cup particular person medal by ending third in 1:48.28.
Nikitina and Bos have been first and second, respectively, in each races to date this season.
There was one other tie, too — however just for seventh. Megan Henry was the highest U.S. finisher, sharing seventh place with Austria’s Janine Flock. Katie Uhlaender was ninth for the U.S., and Kelly Curtis took 14th for the Individuals.
The subsequent World Cup skeleton races are subsequent weekend in Altenberg, Germany.
