From Park City, USA
(January 18, 2025) – Olympic bronze medalist Wengang Yan slid to gold in the fifth race of the IBSF North American Cup men’s skeleton 2024/2025 season, holding back a large field for top honors.
Yan found himself trailing USA’s Andrew Whittier-Neises by a hundredth of a second after the first heat, with France’s Lucas Defayet lingering in third.
But in the second heat Yan out-slid the field handily to take the lead by .64 over Defayet with Whittier-Neises to go.
The American found himself down early in his second run. Despite his best efforts he finished well behind Yan, but did hold off Defayet for silver, while the Frenchman took bronze.
Yan’s gold was his second on the North American tour.
Great Britain’s Jacob Salisbury was fourth, .14 off of the podium, and .11 ahead of Nick Timmings in fifth.
Great Britain’s Matthew Alvarez had a career-best finish in sixth.
Laurence Bostock helped put three British sleds in the top ten in eighth, while Kane Densley rounded out the British effort in 14th.
USA’s Bradley Nicol made his return to sliding from injury with a tenth place finish. Rookies Nicholas Brooks, Tyler Lutz, Dylan Burris, and Tyler Madl all made the second heat and finished 20th, 21st, 24th and 25th respectively.
Mark Lynch led the way for Canada in 13th place, two spots ahead of Massimo Ardizzoni, who tied for 15th with Malaysia’s Jonathan Yaw. Sebastian Regnier was 18th, while Brayden Posyluzny, Simon Salisbury, and Jesse Plante missed the second heat in 26th, 27th, and 29th.
*Note: Due to an issue, start times were not available for many of the second runs.
Results:
| Pos | Name | Nation | Bib | Start 1 | Start 2 | Run 1 | Run 2 | Finish |
| 1 | Wengang Yan | CHN | 4 | 4.67 | 48.94 | 48.87 | 1:37.81 | |
| 2 | Andrew Whittier/Neises | USA | 7 | 4.70 | 48.93 | 49.49 | 1:38.42 | |
| 3 | Lucas Defayet | FRA | 2 | 4.82 | 49.18 | 49.27 | 1:38.45 | |
| 4 | Jacob Salisbury | GBR | 5 | 4.66 | 49.25 | 49.34 | 1:38.59 | |
| 5 | Nicholas Timmings | AUS | 6 | 4.82 | 49.37 | 49.33 | 1:38.70 | |
| 6 | Matthew Alverez | GBR | 18 | 4.72 | 49.56 | 49.49 | 1:39.05 | |
| 7 | Guoqing Yu | CHN | 10 | 4.77 | 49.55 | 49.74 | 1:39.29 | |
| 8 | Laurence Bostock | GBR | 1 | 4.70 | 50.07 | 49.40 | 1:39.47 | |
| 9 | Jared Firestone | ISR | 9 | 4.91 | 49.73 | 49.88 | 1:39.61 | |
| 10 | Bradley Nicol | USA | 29 | 4.83 | 49.73 | 49.98 | 1:39.71 | |
| 11 | Akwasi Frimpong | GHA | 24 | 4.80 | 50.29 | 49.87 | 1:40.16 | |
| 12 | Lin-Wei Peng | TPE | 3 | 4.83 | 50.06 | 50.16 | 1:40.22 | |
| 13 | Mark Lynch | CAN | 14 | 4.92 | 50.19 | 50.07 | 1:40.26 | |
| 14 | Kane Densley | GBR | 11 | 4.73 | 50.88 | 49.67 | 1:40.55 | |
| 15 | Massimo Ardizzoni | CAN | 23 | 4.90 | 50.49 | 50.28 | 1:40.77 | |
| 15 | Jonathan Yaw | MAS | 16 | 5.00 | 50.78 | 49.99 | 1:40.77 | |
| 17 | Chun-Hung Chiang | TPE | 8 | 5.06 | 50.50 | 50.49 | 1:40.99 | |
| 18 | Sebastien Regnier | CAN | 12 | 4.70 | 4.67 | 51.24 | 50.10 | 1:41.34 |
| 19 | Jeff Bauer | LUX | 15 | 5.09 | 50.55 | 50.92 | 1:41.47 | |
| 20 | Nicholas Brooks | USA | 21 | 5.04 | 50.95 | 50.55 | 1:41.50 | |
| 21 | Tyler Lutz | USA | 19 | 4.70 | 50.91 | 51.00 | 1:41.91 | |
| 22 | Oren Milstein | ISR | 20 | 5.10 | 5.10 | 51.50 | 50.70 | 1:42.20 |
| 23 | Kevin Heng Lee | TPE | 14 | 4.96 | 51.02 | 51.29 | 1:42.31 | |
| 24 | Dylan Burris | USA | 26 | 4.85 | 4.86 | 51.34 | 51.43 | 1:42.77 |
| 25 | Tyler Madl | USA | 30 | 4.88 | 4.91 | 51.64 | 51.63 | 1:43.27 |
| 26 | Brayden Posyluzny | CAN | 17 | 4.85 | 51.67 | |||
| 27 | Simon Salisbury | CAN | 28 | 4.92 | 51.76 | |||
| 28 | Caue Goncalves | BRA | 25 | 5.21 | 52.22 | |||
| 29 | Jesse Plante | CAN | 31 | 4.88 | 52.44 | |||
| 30 | David Morales | MEX | 27 | 6.80 | 58.66 | |||
| DNS | Peter Makrides | AUS | DNS |