Double Gold for Weston
Matt Weston won World Cup and European Championship gold as he took top spot in St Moritz for the second time in three days on Friday afternoon.
Weston was the gold medalist in Wednesday’s race and he led from start to finish second time around as he beat the rest of the field by almost a second in Switzerland.
The 29-year-old clocked a two-run time of 2 minutes 16.58 seconds, seeing off Italy’s Amedeo Bagnis - the man who he beat to World Championship gold at this track in 2023 and World Cup gold on Wednesday - by 0.91 seconds, with China’s Zheng Yin third, 0.98 seconds adrift.
Having also won the continental title in Altenberg three years ago, Weston Joins Kristan Bromley (2004, ’05, ’08 and ‘09) & Shelley Rudman (2009 and ‘11) as GB’s only multiple European Champions.
It is the third time in four years the men’s European Champion has been British, after Marcus Wyatt followed Weston’s first success by winning in 2024, and it comes just a few hours after Tabby Stoecker won European silver in the women’s race.
Great Britain have medalled in all four men’s European Championships and three of the four women’s races in this Olympic cycle, with Weston winning gold in 2023; Wyatt taking gold, Weston silver and Amelia Coltman bronze in 2024; and Wyatt and Coltman securing silvers last season.
Weston has now won five of the six World Cup races so far this season, with the only time he wasn’t on the top step of the podium coming when he took silver in the second of two back-to-back races in Sigulda before Christmas.
Wyatt, the man who beat Weston in Sigulda last month, finished ninth in the World Cup and sixth in the European Championships today after coming down in 2 minutes 18.21. Wyatt was eighth after the first run before dropping a spot second time around.
The former American Footballer was third in the Overall World Cup standings prior to today’s race but slips to fourth ahead of next week’s decider in Altenberg, Germany after being passed by South Korea’s Seunggi Jung.
Jacob Salisbury recorded his best result of the season as he placed 13th in the World Cup and ninth in the Euros in a time of 2.18.52. Salisbury sat 12th at the halfway mark but a second run that was 0.04 seconds faster than his first saw him lose a spot in the final standings.
In the third and final event of the day, Salisbury and Freya Tarbit won European Championship bronze in the mixed team event.
Tarbit and Salisbury clocked a combined time of 2 minutes 26.65 seconds in a discipline that will make its Olympic debut in Italy in a few weeks’ time.
That effort saw the GB2 team finish fourth in the World Cup competition and make the continental podium after all non-European results were removed as the race was won by China’s Dan Zhao and Zheng Yin.
Fellow Brits Coltman and Wyatt were fourth in the Euros and joint fifth in the World Cup, with the Germany 2 team of Susanne Kreher and Axel Jungk winning silver and Italy’s Alessandra Fumagalli and men’s silver medalist Amedeo Bagnis bronze in both events.