Grotheer Takes 3rd Straight in Yanqing

November 23, 2024 ken News, Skeleton News 0

From Yanqing, CHN

(November 23, 2024) – Christopher Grotheer returned to the track where he won his 2022 Olympic gold medal and once again took top honors.

But this time it wasn’t nearly as easy.

After one heat it was a familiar threesome at the top of the leaderboard, with Matt Weston leading Grotheer and Marcus Wyatt. All three men had won medals in the first two races of the season. In the second heat it was Wyatt first off the top. The twice-silver medalist this season had a clean enough run, but fell behind China’s Zheng Yin by a tenth of a second, giving Yin his first medal of the season.

L-R: Weston, Grotheer, Yin (Courtesy IBSF)

Grotheer was up next, and while the Olympic champ was out-started by both Yin and Wyatt, he was able to best both athletes to move into the lead with only Weston to go.

Weston was his traditionally quick self off at the start, and had a .24 second lead at the first split. Weston needed a flawless slide to beat Grotheer and was just a bit skiddy. As Weston crossed the line he found himself just a hundredth of a second behind Grotheer, winning silver and giving Grotheer the gold.

Grotheer’s win was his third straight in Yanqing, winning the last two World Cup events there as well as the Olympic gold medal in 2022. For Weston, the silver was his best finish of the season and his best ever finish in Asia.

Yin’s bronze was his fourth World Cup medal in seven races.

Wyatt missed out on a medal by a tenth of a second and finished fourth, ahead of a threesome of Chinese sliders in Qingwei Lin, Haifeng Zhu, and Wenhao Chen, who rounded out the top seven.

Austin Florian had the fast start in the second heat on his way to a tie for 14th place with Germany’s Felix Keisinger as the top American. In the second heat, Dan Barefoot picked up .81 from his first effort and moved up from 22nd to 21st. Hunter Williams rounded out the American effort with a 29th place finish.

Craig Thompson hit the wall early in his second run which dropped him from a tie for 12th to 20th on the final British sled.

Kyle Donsberger was the top Canadian in 28th place, two spots ahead of Mark Lynch in 30th.

After three races on the IBSF World Cup skeleton calendar, Christopher Grotheer leads, ahead Marcus Wyatt and Matt Weston, who are separated by 12 points. Samy Maier and Rasmus Johansen round out the top five.

Results:

Pos Name Nation Bib Start 1 Start 2 Run 1 Run 2 Total
1 Christopher Grotheer GER 8 4.84 4.81 60.81 61.12 2:01.93
2 Matt Weston GBR 6 4.74 4.68 60.70 61.24 2:01.94
3 Zheng Yin CHN 14 4.75 4.75 60.96 61.06 2:02.02
4 Marcus Wyatt GBR 4 4.69 4.69 60.82 61.30 2:02.12
5 Qinwei Lin CHN 11 4.65 4.69 61.47 61.38 2:02.85
6 Haifeng Zhu CHN 16 4.77 4.80 61.15 61.74 2:02.89
7 Wenhao Chen CHN 3 4.71 4.70 61.42 61.49 2:02.91
8 Vladyslav Heraskevych UKR 9 4.92 4.90 61.46 61.49 2:02.95
9 Axel Jungk GER 18 4.89 4.90 61.74 61.30 2:03.04
10 Amedeo Bagnis ITA 17 4.77 4.78 61.66 61.41 2:03.07
11 Rasmus Johansen DEN 10 4.83 4.84 61.56 62.52 2:03.08
12 Samuel Maier AUT 1 4.86 4.89 61.42 61.70 2:03.12
13 Jisoo Kim KOR 7 4.69 4.71 61.49 61.84 2:03.33
14 Austin Florian USA 15 4.68 4.67 61.75 61.59 2:03.34
14 Felix Keisinger GER 2 4.77 4.79 61.61 61.73 2:03.34
16 Alexander Schlintner AUT 26 4.86 4.87 61.78 61.61 2:03.39
17 Lukas Nydegger GER 12 4.88 4.95 61.43 61.99 2:03.42
18 Mattia Gaspari ITA 19 4.97 4.97 61.93 61.66 2:03.59
19 Vinzenz Buff SUI 20 4.99 4.98 61.96 61.79 2:03.75
20 Craig Thompson GBR 5 4.74 4.74 61.56 62.41 2:03.97
21 Daniel Barefoot USA 29 4.85 4.86 62.84 62.03 2:04.87
22 Yaroslav Lavreniuk UKR 22 4.97 4.95 62.71 62.34 2:05.05
23 Nicholas Timmings AUS 23 4.99 4.97 62.88 62.44 2:05.32
24 Giovanni Marchetti ITA 13 4.83 4.81 63.51 62.68 2:06.19
25 Livio Summermatter SUI 24 4.85 4.81 62.88 63.62 2:06.50
26 Colin Freeling BEL 27 5.10 63.63
27 Hyungjun Sim KOR 21 4.79 64.11
28 Kyle Donsberger CAN 28 5.01 64.41
29 Hunter Williams USA 25 4.85 64.45
30 Mark Lynch CAN 30 5.05 64.51