University PhD student finishes 10th on Olympic debut
After yesterday’s success for British Skeleton in the women’s competition, this afternoon saw the conclusion of the men’s contest at the Sochi Winter Olympics.
University of Bath PhD student Dominic Parsons put in a solid performance to finish in 10th place on his Olympic debut.
British interest centred on Parsons and Kristan Bromley, who started the day in the middle of the pack in tenth and eighth place respectively.
Heat three saw the University of Bath PhD student Parsons complete the course at the sliding centre in 57.00, with a good start of 4.66. That put him in an initial ninth place with a combined time of 2:51.40, finishing in ninth at the end of the run.
Bromley clocked a time of 57.17 in what was the 41-year-old doctor’s penultimate Olympic slide, helped by his start of 4.80. That put him in seventh initially, his total time at 2:51.43. After everybody had gone down the track, Bromley was in tenth place.
That put the British Skeleton pair on track for a top ten finish.
It was a solid platform and one that Dom built on to finish in 10th overall, a fantastic achievement for his first Olympics.
His final run of 56.46 was his fastest of the competition and gave him a very respectable total time of 3:48.46.
Compatriot Kristan Bromley posted a final run time of 56.74, also his fastest of the competition, giving him a cumulative time of 3:48.17. That meant finished eighth in what was his last Olympic appearance.
The medals were won by Alexander Tretiakov of Russia who won Gold having occupied pole position from the start of the competition. His final run of 56.02 saw him finish with a total time of 3:44.29.
The silver medal went to Latvian Martins Dukurs and the USA’s Matthew Antoine won bronze.
Parsons was just over 4 seconds off the lead at +4.07, while Bromley ended up +3.88 off first place.
British Skeleton has its headquarters at the University of Bath where British athletes hone their starting skills on the unique push-start track.
You can find a full schedule of the Sochi action featuring athletes with Bath links on the Team Bath website.
Catch the pick of the action on the big screen at the University of Bath Sports Training Village.
A full list of current standings is available on the Sochi website.
More information about British Skeleton can be found on their website.
For information about TeamGB visit their website.
For further information please contact the Team Bath press office at Matchtight Ltd at press@matchtight.co.uk or on 01225 383518.
