From Pyeongchang, KOR
(November 8, 2024) – Christopher Grotheer slid to victory in the first Asian Cup men’s skeleton race, held on the 2018 Olympic sliding track in Pyeongchang.
The reigning world champion was the 30th off the top in the first heat and took a .32 second lead over Ukraine’s Vladyslav Heraskevych, with South Korea’s Chanhyuk Yeo in third.
Italy’s Mattia Gaspari, who had to sit out the 2018 Olympic Games due to injury, slid to the lead from fifth place in the first heat. He then held off China’s Wenhao Chen before Yeo took over the lead.
Heraskevych couldn’t match his first run’s time and fell behind Yeo and Gaspari, with only Grotheer to go. Grotheer, who finished eighth in the 2018 Olympics on the same track, didn’t match his first slide’s time but had plenty in the bank as he crossed the line nearly .6 ahead of Yeo to win gold.
Grotheer’s gold gave him a victory on his 11th track (joining Altenberg, Igls, Lake Placid, Lillehammer, Park City, Sochi, St. Moritz, Whistler, Winterberg, Yanqing). Yeo’s silver medal was his first in international competition.
For Gaspari, the bronze is his third top six in three races on the Korean track. He’d previously finished fifth and sixth in ICC competition.
Heraskevych finished fourth, while Chen took fifth. China’s Haifeng Zhu put down the quick time of the second heat to move up from 20th in the first heat into the top six.
Great Britain’s Matt Weston ended the first heat in 11th, and slid up to seventh in the second run. Marcus Wyatt finished 19th, up from 22nd, while Craig Thompson finished 23rd.
Austin Florian had the second quickest start in both heats on his way to an 18th place finish. Teammate Dan Barefoot finished 25th, while Hunter Williams rounded out the American effort in 42nd.
The Canadian men struggled on the Korean track. Mark Lynch finished 31st, while Ryan Kuehn finished 33rd. Brayden Posyluzny finished 44th in his first career international start.
Australia’s Nick Timmings missed out on a second run by .08 and finished 26th, while Jonathan Yaw finished 32nd for Malaysia.
The Asian Cup continues with three more races before the World Cup opener, also in Pyeongchang. Because of that, the fields for both the men and women are expected to be massive. Both men and women had fields above 40 in the first race of the season.
Results:
| Pos | Name | Nation | Bib | Start 1 | Start 2 | Run 1 | Run 2 | Finish |
| 1 | Christopher Grotheer | GER | 1 | 4.98 | 4.98 | 52.85 | 53.36 | 1:46.21 |
| 2 | Chanhyuk Yeo | KOR | 22 | 4.77 | 4.74 | 53.29 | 53.51 | 1:46.80 |
| 3 | Mattia Gaspari | ITA | 10 | 4.97 | 4.94 | 53.40 | 53.45 | 1:46.85 |
| 4 | Vladyslav Heraskevych | UKR | 13 | 4.88 | 4.83 | 53.17 | 53.74 | 1:46.91 |
| 5 | Wenhao Chen | CHN | 9 | 4.74 | 4.75 | 53.38 | 53.71 | 1:47.09 |
| 6 | Haifeng Zhu | CHN | 36 | 4.74 | 4.75 | 54.23 | 53.10 | 1:47.33 |
| 7 | Matt Weston | GBR | 2 | 4.78 | 4.77 | 53.81 | 53.61 | 1:47.42 |
| 8 | Felix Keisinger | GER | 6 | 4.79 | 4.76 | 53.89 | 53.55 | 1:47.44 |
| 9 | Vinzenz Buff | SUI | 11 | 4.99 | 4.98 | 54.00 | 53.49 | 1:47.49 |
| 10 | Hyungjun Sim | KOR | 16 | 4.73 | 4.70 | 53.59 | 53.98 | 1:47.57 |
| 11 | Amedeo Bagnis | ITA | 5 | 4.73 | 4.77 | 53.75 | 53.92 | 1:47.67 |
| 12 | Zheng Yin | CHN | 7 | 4.90 | 5.01 | 53.69 | 54.10 | 1:47.79 |
| 13 | Qinwei Lin | CHN | 12 | 4.63 | 4.73 | 54.12 | 53.68 | 1:47.80 |
| 14 | Axel Jungk | GER | 17 | 4.99 | 5.02 | 54.08 | 53.78 | 1:47.86 |
| 15 | Samuel Maier | AUT | 15 | 4.91 | 4.94 | 54.01 | 53.87 | 1:47.88 |
| 16 | Wengang Yan | CHN | 8 | 4.75 | 4.74 | 53.68 | 54.25 | 1:47.93 |
| 17 | Lukas Nydegger | GER | 18 | 4.90 | 5.08 | 53.82 | 54.17 | 1:47.99 |
| 18 | Austin Florian | USA | 19 | 4.64 | 4.71 | 53.56 | 54.44 | 1:48.00 |
| 19 | Marcus Wyatt | GBR | 4 | 4.81 | 4.82 | 54.45 | 53.70 | 1:48.15 |
| 20 | Yaroslav Lavreniuk | UKR | 23 | 5.02 | 4.99 | 54.51 | 54.14 | 1:48.65 |
| 21 | Rasmus Johansen | DEN | 14 | 4.90 | 4.99 | 54.45 | 54.24 | 1:48.69 |
| 22 | Lin-Wei Peng | TPE | 28 | 4.98 | 4.94 | 54.14 | 54.56 | 1:48.70 |
| 23 | Craig Thompson | GBR | 3 | 4.86 | 4.88 | 54.32 | 54.48 | 1:48.80 |
| 24 | Alexander Schlintner | AUT | 25 | 4.86 | 4.93 | 54.20 | 54.81 | 1:49.01 |
| 25 | Daniel Barefoot | USA | 29 | 4.83 | 4.91 | 54.51 | 54.59 | 1:49.10 |
| 26 | Nicholas Timmings | AUS | 34 | 5.00 | 54.59 | |||
| 27 | Sungsu Lee | KOR | 40 | 4.82 | 54.77 | |||
| 28 | Yeonsu Shin | KOR | 43 | 5.00 | 54.96 | |||
| 29 | Zhongxu Lin | CHN | 41 | 4.82 | 55.06 | |||
| 30 | Giovanni Marchetti | ITA | 35 | 4.92 | 55.08 | |||
| 31 | Mark Lynch | CAN | 33 | 5.01 | 55.17 | |||
| 32 | Jonathan Yaw | MAS | 20 | 4.98 | 55.21 | |||
| 33 | Ryan Kuehn | CAN | 31 | 4.74 | 55.22 | |||
| 34 | Jared Firestone | ISR | 24 | 5.30 | 55.25 | |||
| 35 | Adrian Rodriguez | ESP | 26 | 4.93 | 55.30 | |||
| 36 | Chun-Hung Chiang | TPE | 27 | 5.05 | 55.45 | |||
| 37 | Eunwoo Kwack | KOR | 44 | 5.10 | 55.84 | |||
| 38 | Livio Summermatter | SUI | 32 | 4.83 | 55.89 | |||
| 39 | Oren Milstein | ISR | 21 | 5.23 | 56.16 | |||
| 40 | Peter Makrides | AUS | 30 | 4.97 | 56.23 | |||
| 41 | Colin Freeling | BEL | 38 | 5.18 | 56.38 | |||
| 42 | Hunter Williams | USA | 37 | 4.82 | 56.59 | |||
| 43 | Kevin Heng Lee | TPE | 39 | 5.08 | 57.00 | |||
| 44 | Brayden Posyluzny | CAN | 42 | 4.93 | 57.82 |
