From Lake Placid, USA
(November 17, 2023) – Canada’s Blake Enzie dominated in the opening round of the 2023/2024 North American Cup men’s skeleton season, as he both won by over a full second on the field and won his first career gold medal.
Enzie’s starts were competitive, but in both heats he had the quick time at the first split and every other split on the way down on his way to a 1.36 second victory to win his first gold medal in international competition.
Enzie’s previous best finish was a silver medal in Lake Placid in the 2018/2019 season.
Behind Enzie, Ireland’s Brendan Doyle rallied from fourth place in the first heat to finish second. Doyle, the 2022/2023 NAC men’s skeleton season champion, put down two consistent runs, the second of which was enough to move him onto to the podium for the fourth time in six NAC races.
Like Enzie and Doyle, the United States’ Nick Tucker scored a career-best finish with his first international bronze medal. Tucker entered the second run in eighth place, nearly .4 out of the medals, but had an outstanding second run to move into the lead. He held that lead for four spots until Doyle took over with three sleds to go.
Malaysia’s Jonathan Yaw finished just out of the medals in fourth, only .03 behind Tucker. His fourth place finish was his first top six effort.
Kyle Donsberger of Canada and Israel’s Jared Firestone both entered the second heat in medal contention but fell out to fifth and sixth, respectively.
Bradley Nicol helped put two American sleds in the top ten with his tenth place effort. Nicholas Brooks finished 13th, while Darryl Payne and Andrew Whittier-Neises finished 16th and 17th respectively.
Canada placed four men in the top ten, with Mark Lynch and Ryan Kuehn in eighth and ninth respectively. Jordan Rwiyamilira and David Park finished just out of the top ten in 11th and 12th, respectively.
The event was the first with the new IBSF regional tour starting spot allocations, giving North American and Asian teams six starting spots in the race.
Results:
| Pos | Name | Nation | Bib | Start 1 | Start 2 | Run 1 | Run 2 | Finish |
| 1 | Blake Enzie | CAN | 18 | 4.90 | 4.93 | 55.44 | 55.95 | 1:51.93 |
| 2 | Brendan Doyle | IRL | 2 | 4.93 | 4.95 | 56.37 | 56.38 | 1:52.75 |
| 3 | Nicholas Tucker | USA | 14 | 5.01 | 5.02 | 56.67 | 56.70 | 1:53.37 |
| 4 | Jonathan Yaw | MAS | 17 | 5.07 | 5.08 | 56.53 | 56.87 | 1:53.40 |
| 5 | Kyle Donsberger | CAN | 19 | 5.06 | 5.12 | 56.21 | 57.21 | 1:53.42 |
| 6 | Jared Firestone | ISR | 7 | 5.06 | 5.25 | 55.90 | 57.65 | 1:53.55 |
| 7 | Hyungjun Sim | KOR | 16 | 4.99 | 5.02 | 56.67 | 57.07 | 1:53.74 |
| 8 | Mark Lynch | CAN | 5 | 5.05 | 5.24 | 56.48 | 57.29 | 1:53.77 |
| 9 | Ryan Kuehn | CAN | 1 | 4.82 | 4.85 | 56.49 | 57.35 | 1:53.84 |
| 10 | Bradley Nicol | USA | 6 | 4.90 | 4.92 | 57.16 | 56.96 | 1:54.12 |
| 11 | Jordan Rwiyamilira | CAN | 3 | 4.94 | 4.98 | 57.19 | 57.15 | 1:54.34 |
| 12 | David Park | CAN | 4 | 4.90 | 5.02 | 56.98 | 57.41 | 1:54.39 |
| 13 | Nicholas Brooks | USA | 10 | 5.07 | 5.06 | 57.03 | 57.98 | 1:55.01 |
| 14 | Chanhyuk Yeo | KOR | 15 | 5.04 | 5.04 | 57.31 | 58.63 | 1:55.94 |
| 15 | Oren Milstein | ISR | 12 | 5.25 | 5.37 | 58.54 | 59.17 | 1:57.71 |
| 16 | Darryl Payne | USA | 20 | 4.89 | 5.01 | 59.99 | 58.51 | 1:58.50 |
| 17 | Andrew Whittier-Neises | USA | 13 | 4.92 | 5.02 | 59.11 | 60.53 | 1:59.64 |
| 18 | Lin-Wei Peng | TPE | 9 | 5.18 | 5.22 | 57.47 | 63.97 | 2:01.44 |
| 19 | Eric Owusu | GHA | 11 | 5.66 | 5.84 | 60.53 | 61.88 | 2:02.41 |
| DNS | Gabriel Berger | AUS | 8 | DNS |
