From Igls, AUT
(February 10, 2023) – There’s no doubt that Matt Weston is, at the time of this writing, currently the hottest men’s skeleton athlete on the IBSF World Cup tour. He showed why yet again on Friday with a gold medal in Igls.
On the track where he won his first World Cup race in a historic three-way tie for gold, Weston lowered the track record set by his current coach Martins Dukurs from a 51.88 to a 51.55 in the first heat. His second run was even quicker, as he lowered the record to a 51.41 on his way to gold.
The win for Weston was his fourth in the last five World Cup events, with a bronze medal in the other. He also cruised to a victory in the 2023 IBSF World Championships in St. Moritz.
Behind Weston, Korea’s Seunggi Jung continued his won breakout season with another silver medal on the strength of two slides that were both under the old track record. Jung’s silver was his third of the season to go with a bronze in Lake Placid.
China’s Wenhao Chen won his first ever IBSF World Cup medal with a bronze after he edged out Olympic gold medalist Christopher Grotheer by just .02. While the bronze was Chen’s first in World Cup competition, he has won races both at the North American Cup and Intercontinental Cup level.
Grotheer finished fourth, up from sixth in the first heat, while China’s Zheng Yin and Korea’s Jisoo Kim rounded out the top six.
Marcus Wyatt had a head-scratcher of a first run for Great Britain where there just didn’t appear to be much speed in the sled. His second run was signifcantly quicker as he finished ninth. Teammate Craig Thompson went in the opposite direction, with a strong first run but issues on the second run dropped him to 12th.
Austin Florian moved up a spot in his second heat to finish 13th. Teammate Andrew Blaser finished in 16th, a career-best World Cup finish on a European track.Blake Enzie, the lone Canadian in the field, finished 19th.
With one race to go in the IBSF World Cup, Christopher Grotheer leads Matt Weston by 76 points, with Axel Jungk in third, 58 points behind WEston. Marcus Wyatt is fourth, only one point behind Jungk, while Seunggi Jung sits fifth.
Results:
| Pos | Name | Nation | Bib | Start 1 | Start 2 | Run 1 | Run 2 | Total |
| 1 | Matt Weston | GBR | 11 | 4.83 | 4.81 | 51.55 | 51.41 | 1:42.96 |
| 2 | Seunggi Jung | KOR | 8 | 4.89 | 4.83 | 51.75 | 51.57 | 1:43.32 |
| 3 | Wenhao Chen | CHN | 10 | 4.88 | 4.88 | 51.76 | 51.69 | 1:43.45 |
| 4 | Christopher Grotheer | GER | 4 | 4.95 | 4.91 | 51.88 | 51.59 | 1:43.47 |
| 5 | Zheng Yin | CHN | 14 | 4.83 | 4.82 | 51.86 | 51.71 | 1:43.57 |
| 6 | Jisoo Kim | KOR | 6 | 4.78 | 4.79 | 51.85 | 51.73 | 1:43.58 |
| 7 | Axel Jungk | GER | 5 | 4.96 | 4.94 | 51.98 | 51.63 | 1:43.61 |
| 8 | Felix Keisinger | GER | 13 | 4.88 | 4.83 | 52.05 | 51.71 | 1:43.76 |
| 9 | Marcus Wyatt | GBR | 12 | 4.84 | 4.86 | 52.04 | 51.77 | 1:43.81 |
| 10 | Samuel Maier | AUT | 19 | 5.08 | 5.07 | 52.06 | 52.08 | 1:44.14 |
| 11 | Amedeo Bagnis | ITA | 1 | 4.92 | 4.92 | 52.10 | 52.12 | 1:44.22 |
| 12 | Craig Thompson | GBR | 3 | 4.91 | 4.94 | 51.94 | 52.31 | 1:44.25 |
| 13 | Austin Florian | USA | 7 | 4.88 | 4.92 | 52.23 | 52.13 | 1:44.36 |
| 14 | Florian Auer | AUT | 2 | 5.09 | 5.08 | 52.20 | 52.33 | 1:44.53 |
| 15 | Mattia Gaspari | ITA | 16 | 5.04 | 5.06 | 52.36 | 52.21 | 1:44.57 |
| 16 | Andrew Blaser | USA | 18 | 5.08 | 5.04 | 52.30 | 52.34 | 1:44.64 |
| 17 | Vladyslav Heraskevych | UKR | 15 | 5.18 | 5.17 | 52.52 | 52.26 | 1:44.78 |
| 18 | Wengang Yan | CHN | 9 | 5.20 | 5.28 | 52.39 | 52.50 | 1:44.89 |
| 19 | Blake Enzie | CAN | 17 | 5.03 | 5.06 | 52.57 | 52.65 | 1:45.22 |
| 20 | Peter Makrides | AUS | 20 | 5.28 | 5.38 | 53.53 | 53.49 | 1:47.02 |
