From Whistler, CAN
(November 24, 2022) – A season ago the British skeleton program looked to be struggling: Clean slides were met with really disappointing finishes. Some new coaching and new equipment, coupled with strong starts off the top gave the team two medals, including a first ever gold for Marcus Wyatt.
Great Britain sat one-two after the first heat, with Matt Weston only .02 ahead of teammate Wyatt, with South Korea’s Seunggi Jung only .03 out of the lead in third.
On the second run Jung threw down a huge run to move into the lead, well ahead of Germany’s Axel Jungk, who had entered the heat in fourth. Wyatt answered with a new start record that broke the time held by one of his new coaches, skeleton legend Martins Dukurs, and matched the second run time by Jung to move into the lead by just .01.
That left Weston. The Brit matched his teammate’s start record off the top and was solid early. However the run began to fall apart late and as he crossed the line Weston found himself in third place to give Great Britain two medals to start the World Cup season.
The gold for Wyatt was his second medal overall, having won a bronze in Sigulda in 2020 and a bunch of other races where he just missed the podium.
For Jung, the Korean’s silver was his second medal and also a career best finish.
Weston’s bronze goes with a silver and gold from Igls (2020 and 2021 respectively).
Jungk put down two solid runs to finish fourth, while Olympic gold medalist Christopher Grotheer jumped up from seventh to finish fifth.
Blake Enzie finished a career-best sixth for Canada.
Austin Florian finished ninth as the top American sled on the strength of the fourth quickest start in both heats, while teammate Andrew Blaser finished 14th, one spot behind Canada’s Evan Neufeldt.
The start was troublesome for a handful of sliders, including Ukraine’s Vladyslav Heraskevych, who popped the groove in the first heat to enter the second run in 13th. However, his second run was the fifth quickest and that catapulted him up to tenth.
Great Britain’s Laurence Bostock also had trouble, with his issues in the second heat, and finished 15th.
Results:
| Pos | Name | Nation | Bib | Start 1 | Start 2 | Run 1 | Run 2 | Total |
| 1 | Marcus Wyatt | GBR | 6 | 4.50 | 4.46 | 52.86 | 52.58 | 1:45.44 |
| 2 | Seunggi Jung | KOR | 12 | 4.48 | 4.48 | 52.87 | 52.58 | 1:45.45 |
| 3 | Matt Weston | GBR | 7 | 4.47 | 4.46 | 52.84 | 53.26 | 1:46.10 |
| 4 | Axel Jungk | GER | 8 | 4.57 | 4.52 | 53.34 | 52.79 | 1:46.13 |
| 5 | Chrsitopher Grotheer | GER | 11 | 4.60 | 4.61 | 53.64 | 52.83 | 1:46.47 |
| 6 | Blake Enzie | CAN | 1 | 4.60 | 4.59 | 53.59 | 53.27 | 1:46.86 |
| 7 | Florian Auer | AUT | 3 | 4.71 | 4.71 | 53.72 | 53.44 | 1:47.16 |
| 7 | Felix Keisinger | GER | 10 | 4.51 | 4.51 | 53.77 | 53.39 | 1:47.16 |
| 9 | Austin Florian | USA | 15 | 4.51 | 4.51 | 53.65 | 53.63 | 1:47.28 |
| 10 | Vladyslav Heraskevych | UKR | 9 | 4.81 | 4.72 | 54.45 | 53.06 | 1:47.51 |
| 11 | Jisoo Kim | KOR | 13 | 4.51 | 4.52 | 53.62 | 53.90 | 1:47.52 |
| 12 | Alexander Schlintner | AUT | 4 | 4.62 | 4.62 | 53.97 | 53.71 | 1:47.68 |
| 13 | Evan Neufeldt | CAN | 2 | 4.64 | 4.67 | 54.22 | 53.52 | 1:47.74 |
| 14 | Andrew Blaser | USA | 5 | 4.65 | 4.62 | 54.52 | 53.87 | 1:48.39 |
| 15 | Laurence Bostock | GBR | 14 | 4.55 | 4.64 | 55.23 | 54.53 | 1:49.76 |
