Weston wins World Cup opener
Matt Weston started his Olympic campaign in style as he won World Cup Skeleton gold in the opening race of the season in Cortina on Friday morning.
Weston topped a field of 35 at the venue for February’s Olympic Winter Games despite the fact that he is still recovering from a serious hamstring tear he suffered during the summer.
Having missed the squad’s pre-season training camp in Norway, the 28-year-old was unable to push at full tilt in Italy but he still won World Cup gold for the 10th time in his career.
Weston clocked a combined time of 1 minute 53.84 seconds to finish 0.15 seconds ahead of Austria’s European Champion, Samuel Maier, and a further 0.03 seconds in front of Zheng Yin of China, who took bronze.
His start times of 4.78 and 4.76 seconds were only the 24th and 18th quickest, leaving him with a mountain to climb to make the podium, but he drove the new 16-corner, 1450m track expertly to ensure he made the podium for the 21st time in the last 25 World Cup races.
“I’m delighted with that win. It’s been a tricky pre-season with the injury so to come here and do that is a massive boost,” said Weston, who won World Championship and Overall World Cup gold last season.
“I’m not able to push at anywhere near my usual pace but I feel like I’ve really clicked with the track and that showed today.
“To start 24th and then 18th but still get the win proves that my sliding was on point even though I’ve missed out on a lot of ice time because of the injury.
I know that this result won’t mean anything come the Olympics but it’s a great way to start the season and it will definitely give me confidence when we come back here in February.
“It’s been an incredible two or three weeks here - it’s an amazing venue and a really interesting track - and I’m already looking forward to trying to match today’s result when we come back for the big one.”
Weston’s team mate Marcus Wyatt finished 12th in a time of 1 minute 54.39 seconds as top tier racing returned to Cortina for the first time since 2007.
Wyatt was ninth after the first run before slipping three spots second time around.
Fellow Brit Jacob Salisbury was 18th in a time of 1.54.84 on the 10th World cup start of his career.
Today’s appearance was only Salisbury’s second on the World Cup circuit over the past 20 months, with his best yet a seventh spot in Sigulda the season before last. He sat 13th at the halfway mark today and, despite dropping down the standings in Run 2, outperformed his most recent World Cup result of 22nd in St Moritz in January by four places.
Germany’s reigning Olympic Champion Christopher Grotheer placed 15th, with 2022 Olympic silver medalist Axel Jungk sixth and home sliders Mattia Gaspari and Amedeo Bagnis 17th and joint 19th respectively.
Amelia Coltman, Tabby Stoecker and Freya Tarbit, who were fourth, seventh and eighth in last season’s World cup standings, begin their campaign at 12pm GMT, with the team race taking place at 5pm.
Bobsleigh action follows on Saturday (monobob and 2-man) and Sunday (women’s and 4-man) before the World Cup circuit switches to Igls in Austria next week.
Races follow in Lillehammer and Sigulda prior to Christmas, with Winterberg, St Moritz and Altenberg also on the World Cup schedule ahead of the season showpiece back in Cortina in less than three months’ time.
You can watch today’s races - and all this year’s World Cup events - live via the International Bobsleigh & Skeleton Federation YouTube channel.
