From Lake Placid, USA
(March 8, 2024) – Wenhao Chen won gold in a stacked field of sliders on Friday to finish out the 2023/2024 IBSF North American Cup men’s skeleton season in a show of force from the Chinese men’s skeleton program.
Chen held the lead after the first heat, ahead of 2023 world champ Matt Weston in second, .32 back, and Marcus Wyatt in third, a hundredth behind Weston.
Things shook up in the second heat. China’s Wengang Yan took the lead from 12th place and began to climb the ladder with a run that would prove to be the quickest of the heat. That run was enough to carry both he and Great Britain’s Jacob Salisbury (3rd in the second heat) up the order. That climb for both men stopped at fifth and sixth for Yan and Salisbury, respectively.
China’s Wenqiang Geng slid ahead of Yan, and held that lead for two spots until Ukraine’s Vladyslav Heraskevich took over with the top five sleds to go. Heraksevych was able to survive in the medal positions. Geng’s climb was from eighth to fourth, while Heraskevych was able to slide into the medals in third.
China’s Zheng Yin took the lead from Heraskevych and held on all the way to Wenhao Chen’s second run. Chen’s start was a hundredth quicker, and while his slide was only seventh quickest in the heat, he had enough banked from the first heat to take the victory by .24 over Yin, with Heraskevych third, .39 back.
Geng finished fourth, Yan fifth to put four sleds in the top five for China, with Thompson sixth.
China had six sleds entered in the field, and all six finished in the top 11. Outside of the top six, Jing Zhang finished ninth, with Qinwei Lin in 11th.
Daniel Barefoot led the way for the United States on their home track in Lake Placid with a 12th place finish, up from 13th in the first heat and the only slider in the top 25. Nick Tucker finished in a three-way tie with Korea’s Chanhyuk Yeo and the Netherlands’ Mike Rogals. Bradley Nicol, Dylan Burris, Darryl Payne, and Sam Allred finished 30th, 41st, 42nd, and 45th respectively.
Great Britain’s Wyatt fell from third in the first heat to finish 10th. Matt Weston finished 13th, while Jacob Salisbury finished 49th to round out the British effort.
Ryan Kuehn was 22nd as the top Canadian. Teammates Josip Brusic and Sebastien Regnier were 32nd and 44th respectively.
Korea’s Hyungjun Sim finished 31st in the race, which scored him only ten point and left him seven points behind Brendan Doyle of Ireland in the season points, giving Doyle his second straight North American Cup title.
Doyle missed the final two races in Lake Placid due to a family emergency, but had a large enough lead coupled with a comically large field in Lake Placid to hold onto the season title. Sim finished the year in second, while Jonathan Yaw finished the year in third overall, only five points ahead of USA’s Bradley Nicol in fourth.
Results:
| Pos | Name | Nation | Bib | Start 1 | Start 2 | Run 1 | Run 2 | Finish |
| 1 | Wenhao Chen | CHN | 23 | 4.85 | 4.84 | 53.95 | 54.74 | 1:48.69 |
| 2 | Zheng Yin | CHN | 16 | 4.94 | 5.03 | 54.29 | 54.64 | 1:48.93 |
| 3 | Vladyslav Heraskevych | UKR | 18 | 5.11 | 5.08 | 54.39 | 54.69 | 1:49.08 |
| 4 | Wenqiang Geng | CHN | 20 | 5.00 | 5.01 | 54.52 | 54.66 | 1:49.18 |
| 5 | Wengang Yan | CHN | 26 | 5.06 | 5.00 | 54.73 | 54.58 | 1:49.31 |
| 6 | Craig Thompson | GBR | 49 | 4.83 | 4.88 | 54.71 | 54.66 | 1:49.37 |
| 7 | Seunggi Jung | KOR | 32 | 4.90 | 4.80 | 54.63 | 54.77 | 1:49.40 |
| 8 | Mattia Gaspari | ITA | 25 | 5.09 | 5.08 | 54.45 | 55.04 | 1:49.49 |
| 9 | Jing Zhang | CHN | 27 | 4.93 | 4.90 | 54.71 | 54.92 | 1:49.63 |
| 10 | Marcus Wyatt | GBR | 21 | 4.99 | 5.31 | 54.28 | 55.37 | 1:49.65 |
| 11 | Qingwei Lin | CHN | 28 | 4.74 | 4.80 | 55.03 | 54.68 | 1:49.71 |
| 12 | Daniel Barefoot | USA | 48 | 5.02 | 5.11 | 54.84 | 54.97 | 1:49.81 |
| 13 | Matt Weston | GBR | 19 | 5.08 | 5.88 | 54.27 | 55.90 | 1:50.17 |
| 14 | Livio Summermatter | SUI | 30 | 4.88 | 4.82 | 55.09 | 55.17 | 1:50.26 |
| 15 | Jisoo Kim | KOR | 38 | 4.93 | 4.96 | 55.23 | 55.37 | 1:50.60 |
| 16 | Vinzenz Buff | SUI | 39 | 5.09 | 5.10 | 55.30 | 55.37 | 1:50.67 |
| 17 | Giovanni Marchetti | ITA | 35 | 5.00 | 4.94 | 55.19 | 55.58 | 1:50.77 |
| 18 | Lucas Defayet | FRA | 34 | 5.10 | 5.08 | 55.14 | 55.64 | 1:50.78 |
| 18 | Yaroslav Lavreniuk | UKR | 37 | 5.13 | 5.15 | 55.54 | 55.24 | 1:50.78 |
| 20 | Alexander Schlintner | AUT | 29 | 4.99 | 5.00 | 55.33 | 55.46 | 1:50.79 |
| 21 | Manuel Schwärzer | ITA | 41 | 5.03 | 5.01 | 55.66 | 55.27 | 1:50.93 |
| 22 | Ryan Kuehn | CAN | 11 | 4.88 | 4.95 | 55.21 | 56.02 | 1:51.23 |
| 23 | Nicholas Timmings | AUS | 33 | 5.14 | 5.19 | 55.67 | 55.74 | 1:51.41 |
| 24 | Samuel Maier | AUT | 31 | 5.05 | 5.12 | 55.67 | 55.88 | 1:51.55 |
| 25 | Amedeo Bagnis | ITA | 24 | 4.84 | 5.83 | 54.30 | 57.63 | 1:51.93 |
| 26 | Akwasi Frimpong | GHA | 40 | 4.99 | 5.02 | 55.66 | 56.70 | 1:52.36 |
| 27 | Nicholas Tucker | USA | 7 | 4.98 | 55.69 | |||
| 27 | Chanhyuk Yeo | KOR | 17 | 5.05 | 55.69 | |||
| 27 | Mike Rogals | NED | 36 | 5.39 | 55.69 | |||
| 30 | Bradley Nicol | USA | 10 | 5.08 | 55.80 | |||
| 31 | Hyungjun Sim | KOR | 13 | 4.98 | 56.04 | |||
| 32 | Jonathan Yaw | MAS | 12 | 5.05 | 56.11 | |||
| 32 | Josip Brusic | CAN | 14 | 4.97 | 56.11 | |||
| 34 | Maxime Mingeon | FRA | 46 | 5.16 | 56.27 | |||
| 35 | Joeri van Kuppeveld | NED | 47 | 4.91 | 56.40 | |||
| 36 | Yeonsu Shin | KOR | 43 | 5.23 | 56.42 | |||
| 37 | Adrian Rodriguez | ESP | 42 | 5.01 | 56.46 | |||
| 38 | Lars Rumo | SUI | 44 | 5.37 | 56.49 | |||
| 39 | Peter Makrides | AUS | 9 | 5.15 | 56.51 | |||
| 40 | Lin-Wei Peng | TPE | 4 | 5.16 | 56.61 | |||
| 41 | Dylan Burris | USA | 50 | 5.06 | 56.64 | |||
| 42 | Darryl Payne | USA | 6 | 4.98 | 56.87 | |||
| 43 | Guido Persoon | NED | 2 | 5.03 | 56.98 | |||
| 44 | Sebastian Regnier | CAN | 15 | 4.77 | 57.04 | |||
| 45 | Sam Allred | USA | 8 | 4.96 | 57.44 | |||
| 46 | Chun-Hung Chiang | TPE | 45 | 5.31 | 57.67 | |||
| 47 | Gidon Bante | NED | 1 | 5.19 | 57.96 | |||
| 48 | Eduardo Strapasson | BRA | 3 | 5.48 | 58.52 | |||
| 49 | Jacob Salisbury | GBR | 51 | 4.84 | 59.06 | |||
| DNS | Jared Firestone | ISR | 22 | DNS | ||||
| DNS | Oren Milstein | ISR | 5 | DNS |