GB so close to team medal

The final skeleton action of the World Championships in Altenberg saw Great Britain just miss out on a medal in the team event for the second season running.

Laura Deas and Matt Weston finished fourth on Saturday morning as they ended three-days of consecutive sliding on a high.

Deas and Weston - who was fourth last year at the same venue - clocked a combined time of 1 minute 55.98 seconds, with Deas coming down fifth fastest of the women in 58.99 seconds and Weston recording the third quickest time of the men in 56.99.

It was a particularly impressive effort from 23-year-old Weston given that he had suffered the huge disappointment of crashing out of contention for the top six in the individual event on Friday and it again demonstrated his potential to compete with the very best in the lead up to Beijing 2022 and Milan Cortina 2026.

Deas registered her fastest start of the week and the third quickest of all 11 women as she ended the championships on a solid footing. The Olympic bronze medalist had endured a frustrating first day in the individual race on Thursday but continued where she left on Friday when she had been the seventh and then eighth fastest slider in the field.

Fellow Brits Ashleigh Pittaway and Marcus Wyatt were seventh overall in a time of 1 minute 57.09, with Pittaway clocking 59.78 and Wyatt 57.31.

Wyatt was the fastest starter of all (with Weston joint second quickest at the top) and the sixth fastest man overall. 

Having won the individual titles less than 24 hours earlier, German duo Tina Hermann and Christopher Grotheer took team gold, with last year’s winners, Jacqueline Loelling and Alexander Gassner, securing silver and Russia’s Elena Nikitina and Alexander Tretiakov claiming bronze.