PyeongChang 2018: Fast times provide encouraging start to official practice for skeleton athletes
It has been an encouraging start to official practice for University of Bath-based skeleton athletes at the PyeongChang 2018 Winter Olympic Games.
Laura Deas recorded the second-fastest time on the first run, then went quickest on the next with just nine-hundredths of a second separating her two times.
Defending champion Lizzy Yarnold was third and fourth fastest on her two outings, while Jackie Narracott – representing Australia – was tenth and 16th respectively.
University of Bath Mechanical Engineering PhD student Dom Parsons was one of only two sliders in the men’s field to go below 51 seconds as he set the fastest time of 50.74 in his second run. Team-mate Jerry Rice, who is making his Olympic debut in PyeongChang, improved from 14th on his first run to eighth on his second.
Deas, Yarnold, Parsons and Rice all train with the British Bobsleigh & Skeleton Association (BBSA) at its University of Bath headquarters, using the UK’s only outdoor push-start track, the indoor sprint track and the Sports Training Village’s high-performance gym.
The men’s Olympic competition takes place on Thursday and Friday, with the women in action on Friday and Saturday – click here to see the full schedule.
Team GB will be looking to continue a proud tradition of medalling at each Winter Olympic Games since the push-start track was opened in 2001 – Alex Coomber bagged bronze in 2002, Shelley Rudman took silver in 2006 and both Amy Williams and Yarnold memorably won gold in 2010 and 2014 respectively.
Click here to keep up to date with how University of Bath-based athletes are faring at the PyeongChang 2018 Winter Olympic Games.
