Beijing Olympic champion Christopher Grotheer has won his third world championship title in skeleton. The 31-year-old from BSC Thuringia was 23 hundredths of a second ahead of defending champion Matt Weston from Great Britain after four runs on Friday in Winterberg. The Chinese Zheng Yin came third ahead of the British Marcus Wyatt, who increased the track record to 55.26 seconds in the final run.
“Everything was fine downstairs. I knew Matt didn’t have a great run, but Wyatt did a pretty good job. I wanted to attack after the third run, that worked,” said Grotheer and received a winning kiss from his wife Mary-Ann. Head coach Christian Baude praised: “He rocked it, outstandingly simple.”
After a completely botched first run (“a disaster”), Olympic silver medalist Axel Jungk from BSC Sachsen Oberbärenburg came in fifth ahead of Felix Keisinger from WSV Königssee.
Neise misses gold
The Wernigerode Grotheer native laid the foundation for his third title win after 2020 and 2021 in Altenberg with a track record (55.32 seconds) in the third and penultimate run. Only the Latvian Martins Dukurs, who has since retired, achieved more with six World Cup victories. At the start on Thursday, Grotheer set the best time, but in the rain he only achieved the fourth best time in the second round. Nevertheless, it was enough to take the half-time lead – and ultimately win.
Hannah Neise, on the other hand, missed her first World Cup gold. The Beijing 2022 Olympic champion was in the lead, but was hit by a heavy sleet in the final run and came third. Victory was secured by Canadian Hallie Clarke, who at the age of 19 is also the youngest world champion in skeleton history. The Belgian Kim Meylemans came in second.
Published/Updated: Published/Updated: Recommendations: 6 A comment from Anno Hecker Published/Updated: Recommendations: 6
The 23-year-old Neise from BSC Winterberg set the best time in the third of four runs and was in the lead with Clarke before the final run. “My face is smiling right now. Gold would have been nice, but my goal was a medal here in front of my home crowd,” said Neise. Jacqueline Pfeifer from RSG Hochsauerland came in fifth place. Defending champion Susanne Kreher from BSC Sachsen Oberbärenburg struggled with the material as she did the day before and had to settle for tenth place.
