Yarnold wins second gold and Parsons so close!

20 January 2015

Lizzy Yarnold claimed her second FIBT World Cup gold medal of the season and fellow Sochi 2014 Olympian Dominic Parsons finished just outside the medals on another impressive weekend for British Skeleton.

Yarnold became the first slider to win two World Cup races this season as she completed her two runs at Königssee in an overall time of 1min 44.24secs, putting her a comfortable 0.71 ahead of Germany’s Anja Huber Selbach. Russia’s Maria Orlova took the bronze.

It was a first gold at the German track for the Olympic champion, who is now up to fifth in the overall World Cup standings despite missing the second race in Calgary through dizziness.

“It is such a tough track here in Königssee – it has taken me six years but I’ve finally got it,” said Yarnold, who trains at the University of Bath.

“A big thank you to my coach Eric [Bernotas] as well, as I couldn’t have done this without him.”

Laura Deas’s trademark rapid starts helped her claim 11th place overall, while Rosie McGrandle recovered from a difficult first run – which saw her briefly lose control of her sled – to climb five places to 14th after a superb second outing.

Saturday saw Parsons record rapid start times of 4.76 and 4.77 to clock 1:43.39 overall and finish fourth in the men’s race, just one-tenth of a second behind bronze-medalist Mark Antoine of the United States.

Parsons is now sixth in the World Cup standings, while fellow Brit Ed Smith is 17th after placing 20th in Königssee.

Meanwhile, British Bobsleigh’s athletes – who, like their British Skeleton counterparts, are based at the University of Bath – recorded a top-ten finish during an encouraging World Cup weekend in Königssee.

After placing eighth in the two pre-Christmas events, driver Victoria Olaoy teamed up with World Cup debutant Anya Kay to finish tenth in the women’s two-man bob in 1:43.48 – one place and 0.31 ahead of fellow Brits Mica McNeill and Aleasha Kiddle.

The four-man bob team of Lamin Deen, Toby Olubi, Jordan Smallin and Andrew Matthews were also 11th in Königssee in 1:38.93.

Driver Deen and Olubi were 18th in the two-man competition in 1:44.03 but Oliver Biddulph and Smallin failed to qualify for the second run and had to settle for 25th overall.

Round 5 of the bobsleigh and skeleton World Cups take place at the iconic St Moritz resort in Switzerland this week (January 19-25).

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