From Sigulda, LAT
(December 13, 2024) – The British skeleton program is coached by Latvian legend Martins Dukurs, so it was no surprise that Great Britain were fast in Sigulda. Team GB went one-two in Latvia, with Marcus Wyatt holding off teammate Matt Weston to take top honors.
Wyatt led Weston by .2 after the first heat, with a handful of sliders well behind the two Brits battling for bronze.
Before Wyatt and Weston could put on their show, there was the matter of getting the third and final medal position secured. Austria’s Samy Maier entered the second heat in fifth and had taken the lead from China’s Wenhao Chen with the top four to go. Germany’s Felix Keisinger was next, and made a few mistakes mid-run to fall back out of medal contention, behind Chen.
Zheng Yin was up next. He’d won the previous race in Sigulda to begin a streak of victories to finish out the season. He was once again quick, but his second run wasn’t quite as solid as Maier’s second effort, and as he crossed the finish line the two sliders found themselves tied for the lead with two to go to secure bronze for each.
Then it was time for the battle for gold. In his first run, Matt Weston had put down a great run, save for one late hit that likely scrubbed a tenth or two off of his time. His second run looked to be cleaner, albeit slower than his first. It was more than enough to take the lead from Maier and Yin by .68 and secure a win for Great Britain.
The question was who would take home the gold. Wyatt had the quick start in the first heat, and duplicated that effort in the second with a matching 4.52. In the first heat Wyatt had been behind Weston for most of his run until a cleaner few curves put him ahead. In the second heat, however, Wyatt was the quickest of anyone all the way down the track as he finished .05 quicker in the second heat and a quarter of a second ahead of Weston for his first singles win of the 2024/2025 season.
“I was happy to be in the lead,” Wyatt told IBSF TV after the race. “I put down a good first run. I knew there was plenty of things I could improve. I was tryign to do the same again and clean up a few bits and see what happens.”
Wyatt had previously won gold by .01 over South Korea’s Seunggi Jung in Whistler during the 2022/2023 season. Weston finished third in that race. Wyatt also had won gold in Altenberg as part of the Mixed Team event one week ago.
For Weston, the silver medal was his third straight, and fifth straight medal to start the season.
Yin’s bronze was his second of the season, his only top tens of the year. For Maier, the bronze is the second of his career, with the previous coming on home ice in Igls.
Chen took fifth and Keisinger sixth to round out the top six.
The United States’ Austin Florian was the first slider out of the top six in seventh place, only .11 out of the top six. Teammate Dan Barefoot’s streak of 21st place finishes came to an end in Sigulda, as he finished 23rd. Teammate Hunter Williams missed out on the second heat by .03 behind Timon Drahnovsky, but still scored his best World Cup finish outside of North America with a 27th place result.
Great Britain’s solid Craig Thompson had a disappointing first run that left him back in 16th. His second run was over a half of a second quicker than his first, enough to move him up to 12th.
Canadians Kyle Donsberger and Jordan Rwiyamilira finished 31st and 33rd, respectively, in their first look at the track in Sigulda.
With three races to go in the 2024/2025 World Cup men’s skeleton season, Marcus Wyatt leads Matt Weston by just seven points. Christopher Grotheer, the World Cup leader coming into the day, was injured in training earlier in the week and did not start. Despite that, Grotheer sits third overall, 60 points ahead of Samy Maier in fourth, with Wenhao Chen in fifth.
Results:
| Pos | Name | Nation | Bib | Start 1 | Start 2 | Run 1 | Run 2 | Total |
| 1 | Marcus Wyatt | GBR | 10 | 4.52 | 4.52 | 49.59 | 49.92 | 1:39.51 |
| 2 | Matt Weston | GBR | 5 | 4.54 | 5.54 | 49.79 | 49.97 | 1:39.76 |
| 3 | Samuel Maier | AUT | 8 | 4.72 | 4.75 | 50.16 | 50.28 | 1:40.44 |
| 3 | Zheng Yin | CHN | 1 | 4.61 | 4.58 | 50.02 | 50.42 | 1:40.44 |
| 5 | Wenhao Chen | CHN | 3 | 4.58 | 4.58 | 50.28 | 50.18 | 1:40.46 |
| 6 | Felix Keisinger | GER | 9 | 4.64 | 4.59 | 50.05 | 50.49 | 1:40.54 |
| 7 | Austin Florian | USA | 11 | 4.58 | 4.67 | 50.23 | 50.42 | 1:40.65 |
| 8 | Mattia Gaspari | ITA | 17 | 4.83 | 4.82 | 50.23 | 50.57 | 1:40.80 |
| 9 | Amedeo Bagnis | ITA | 18 | 4.56 | 4.55 | 50.39 | 50.53 | 1:40.92 |
| 10 | Axel Jungk | GER | 6 | 4.71 | 4.69 | 50.48 | 50.46 | 1:40.94 |
| 11 | Vladyslav Heraskevych | UKR | 7 | 4.78 | 4.72 | 50.44 | 50.51 | 1:40.95 |
| 12 | Craig Thompson | GBR | 15 | 4.54 | 4.55 | 50.85 | 50.31 | 1:41.16 |
| 13 | Lukas Nydegger | GER | 19 | 4.80 | 4.81 | 50.48 | 50.80 | 1:41.28 |
| 14 | Davis Valdovskis | LAT | 25 | 4.76 | 4.76 | 50.58 | 50.75 | 1:41.33 |
| 15 | Alexander Schlintner | AUT | 13 | 4.75 | 4.71 | 50.71 | 50.78 | 1:41.49 |
| 16 | Rasmus Johansen | DEN | 2 | 4.72 | 4.67 | 50.58 | 51.29 | 1:41.87 |
| 17 | Haifeng Zhu | CHN | 12 | 4.71 | 4.67 | 51.11 | 50.80 | 1:41.91 |
| 18 | Lucas Defayet | FRA | 29 | 4.82 | 4.75 | 51.27 | 50.65 | 1:41.92 |
| 19 | Vinzenz Buff | SUI | 14 | 4.91 | 4.89 | 50.99 | 51.11 | 1:42.10 |
| 20 | Jisoo Kim | KOR | 20 | 4.56 | 4.58 | 50.98 | 51.13 | 1:42.11 |
| 21 | Qinwei Lin | CHN | 16 | 4.54 | 4.55 | 51.17 | 51.05 | 1:42.22 |
| 22 | Giovanni Marchetti | ITA | 30 | 4.66 | 4.69 | 51.41 | 51.32 | 1:42.73 |
| 23 | Daniel Barefoot | USA | 21 | 4.77 | 4.78 | 51.56 | 51.18 | 1:42.74 |
| 24 | Livio Summermatter | SUI | 33 | 4.68 | 4.76 | 51.53 | 51.68 | 1:43.21 |
| 25 | Timon Drahonovsky | CZE | 32 | 4.92 | 4.86 | 51.68 | 51.61 | 1:43.29 |
| 26 | Vladyslav Polyvach | POL | 24 | 4.85 | 51.70 | |||
| 27 | Hunter Williams | USA | 27 | 4.70 | 51.71 | |||
| 28 | Vladyslav Klymenko | UKR | 26 | 4.78 | 51.89 | |||
| 29 | Adrian Rodriguez | ESP | 34 | 4.79 | 51.95 | |||
| 30 | Hyungjun Sim | KOR | 22 | 4.65 | 52.17 | |||
| 31 | Kyle Donsberger | CAN | 28 | 4.91 | 52.27 | |||
| 31 | Colin Freeling | BEL | 31 | 4.99 | 52.27 | |||
| 33 | Jordan Rwiyamilira | CAN | 23 | 4.71 | 52.68 | |||
| DNS | Christopher Grotheer | GER | 4 | DNS |