Coltman claims European bronze
A brilliant day for British Skeleton got even better as Amelia Coltman won European Championship bronze in Sigulda on Friday afternoon.
Coltman claimed her maiden top-tier medal just a few hours after Marcus Wyatt took gold and Matt Weston silver in the men’s event at the same venue.
The 27-year-old from Melton Mowbray in Leicestershire clocked a two-run time of 1 minute 43.49 seconds to become the first British female to win a European Championship medal since Lizzy Yarnold and Rose McGrandle secured gold and bronze respectively in Igls nine years ago.
Coltman joins an illustrious list of just nine British sliders across both the men’s and women’s fields to win a European medal, with Amy Williams, Shelley Rudman and Kristan Bromley among them.
Having set a personal best of sixth in Lillehammer last week, the former tennis and badminton player went even better in Latvia as she finished fourth in the World Cup race but third in the continental championships after Canada’s Mirela Rahneva took overall gold.
Amelia Coltman is now a European Championship medalist
“I'm ecstatic to come away from today's race with a European Championship bronze medal and a PB World Cup 4th place!” said Coltman.
I felt optimistic coming into the race off the back of a good result last week and a solid week of training here, but to actually put it all together on the day and perform felt incredible!
“It's been a tough journey to get to this point after battling through injuries and some disappointing results in the first half of this season. I've worked really hard on my mindset and I'm beginning to see the results.
“It hasn't sunk in yet but I will take confidence from my performance for the rest of the season and beyond.”
Belgium’s Kim Meylemans won the European race, with Olympic Champion Hannah Neise pipping Coltman to European silver by just eight hundredths of a second.
Never before have GB won three medals in a single European Championship competition and today marks just the second time in history the country has won European medals in both the men’s and women’s races. The only other occasion was in 2009 when Rudman took gold and Bromley silver in St Moritz.
Fellow Brits Freya Tarbit finished eighth and 10th in the European Championship standings and 10th and 14thin the World Cup competition.
