Bland comes close to EC bronze
The latest event of the Skeleton Europa Cup season saw Ashlyn Bland just miss a medal as she finished joint fourth in Altenberg.
Bland came within a tenth of a second of a second career podium place in what was the third EC race of the new campaign following the double header in Lillehammer late last month.
The 26-year-old recorded a two-run time of 1 minute 57.61 seconds at arguably the trickiest track on the circuit, improving significantly on her previous visit when she placed 12th and then 20th two years ago.
Bland, whose maiden medal to date is the bronze she won in Igls in February 2024, was the second and then fourth fastest starter over the two heats as she recorded the third quickest downtime in Run 1 and the seventh in Run 2.
The result and performance bettered her eighth and 10th place finishes in Lillehammer a week ago and sets her up to challenge for a medal when they race again at 12pm GMT tomorrow.
Fellow Brits Leah Kidd and Regan Walker were 22nd and 26th respectively in the 33-strong field as Germany took gold and bronze through Viktoria Hansova and Viktoria Donicke, with Sara Schmied of Switzerland securing silver.
In the men’s race, Laurence Bostock made the wider podium with a sixth-place finish off the back of the fastest and third fastest starts of the day at the same venue.
Bostock came down in 1 minute 53.35 seconds, 0.62 behind race winner Felix Seibel of Germany and 0.27 shy of Italy’s bronze medal winner, Pietro Drovanti. Stefan Rottig ensured the home nation celebrated four of the day’s six medals across the men’s and women’s races as he won silver.
Bostock’s British team-mates, Craig Thompson and Matt Alvarez, were 23rd and 25th respectively in the 39-strong line up.
The men race again tomorrow at 8am GMT, with the EC circuit then scheduled to take a break until the New Year having reached the halfway point of the eight-race season.
