Crowley smashes PB with fine fifth

Crowley smashes PB with fine fifth

Brogan Crowley smashed her personal best as she finished fifth in Friday’s World Cup Women’s Skeleton race in Igls.

Crowley set her previous PB of ninth in Konigssee just last week but she easily surpassed that success in the final World Cup race of the season.

The 26-year-old former GB Youth heptathlete was making just her sixth appearance on the sport’s top circuit, having only made her World Cup debut 11 months ago.

But she continued her impressive record of improving in every single World cup race she has entered, with her race stats now reading 22nd, 16th, 15th, 14th, ninth and fifth as we head into the final 12 months of the Olympic cycle.

She was 15th on her only other World Cup appearance in Igls in December but she showed just how far she has come in a short space of time as she clocked a combined time of 1 minute 48.61 seconds to finish 0.24 seconds outside the medals.

Team mates Laura Deas and Ashleigh Pittaway also impressed as they placed eighth and 10th respectively to ensure GB had three female sliders in the top 10 at a World Cup race for just the second time in six years since Lizzy Yarnold won gold, Rose McGrandle took bronze and Deas finished seventh in Igls back in 2015.

Deas improved on her 13th-place finish in Germany last week, while Pittaway, who won Junior World Championship bronze six days ago, was two spots shy of the personal best she set in Sigulda in November.

Russia’s Elena Nikitina took gold ahead of home favourite and overall World Cup winner Janine Flock, with Kimberly Bos finishing third.

Next up for the team is the World Championships in Altenberg, Germany on February 11 and 12.