Another top-five finish for slider Laura Deas ahead of Skeleton World Championships team announcement
Laura Deas warmed up for the ISBF World Championships with a fifth-placed finish in the latest round of Skeleton World Cup action in St Moritz on Friday.
Deas, who trains at the University of Bath with the British Bobsleigh & Skeleton Association, was just 0.38secs behind race winner Janine Flock and remains fourth in the overall World Cup standings with one race to go.
Friday’s competition also doubled as the European Championships, with Deas just missing out on a medal behind two German sliders and one from Switzerland.
Fellow Brit Donna Creighton finished 15th but remains 12th in the overall standings.
Mechanical Engineering PhD student Dom Parsons – supported by the University of Bath dual career programme – led the way for GB’s men with an 11th-placed finish, which moved him up to fifth in the overall rankings.
Kenny Howard was 23rd on his World Cup debut, one place ahead of David Swift who had won Europa Cup gold on the same track a week earlier.
Attentions now turn to the World Championships in Igls, Austria, with the GB skeleton team being named on Monday afternoon.
Five GB bobsleigh crews were also in World Cup action at St Moritz over the weekend.
Female duo Mica McNeil and Natalie DeRatt finished joint 11th after a strong second run, while male crews Brad Hall with Ben Simons and Bruce Tasker with Joel Fearon were 18th and 24th respectively.
Sunday’s four-man race featured a 19th-placed finish for John Jackson, Hall, Tasker and Simons as Lamin Deen, John Baines, Fearon and Andy Matthews just missed out on a second run in 21st.
The races doubled as the European Championships, with McNeil and DeRatt finishing joint seventh, the two-man crews 14th and 17th, and the four-man teams 17th and 18th in the continental competition.
The Bobsleigh World Championships get under way on Friday – here is the team.
