Deas fifth as Pittaway produces PB
Laura Deas finished fifth in the Women’s World Cup Skeleton in Sigulda on Friday as fellow Brit Ashleigh Pittaway produced her best ever performance on the top tier to end eighth in the second race of the new sliding season.
Olympic bronze medalist Deas was sixth at the same venue in last week’s season opener and today’s result was her best since medalling in Calgary in February 2019.
Deas moved up two spots from seventh after the first run as she continues to find the consistency she has been targeting ahead of the next Olympic Winter games in less than 15 months’ time.
The 32-year-old recorded a combined time of 1 minute 44 seconds exactly after she improved her second run time by almost a quarter of a second in Latvia.
Pittaway produced two consistent runs to finish just over half a second behind her team-mate - an improvement of four places on her position in last week’s race and one spot better than her previous World Cup best from Lake Placid 21 months ago.
The 20-year-old, who made her World Cup debut almost five years ago but who has spent most of her career so far excelling on the lower circuits, clocked run times of 52.18 and 52.17 seconds to make the top 10 for only the second time in her career.
Fellow Brit Brogan Crowley finished 16th in what was just her second World Cup appearance. The 26-year-old from Saddleworth in Greater Manchester, who has endured an injury affected summer, made her top-tier debut at the same venue last season when she placed 22nd.
Austria’s Janine Flock – the athlete Deas pipped to the Olympic podium in PyeongChang – took gld for the second week running. Elena Nikitina secured silver for Russia, with Kimberley Boss of the Netherlands and Germany’s Tina Hermann sharing bronze.
Great Britain’s men’s trio of Craig Thompson, Matt Weston and Marcus Wyatt race at 1pm this afternoon as they look to build on their respective fifth, sixth and eighth-place finishes exactly a week ago.
There is also Europa Cup action this afternoon as Laurence Bostock, Benji Fulker, Rachel Hanagan and Jacob Salisbury go for GB in their first race of the season in Winterberg, Germany.
After today's men's race, the World Cup competition now takes a short break before starting again in Igls, Austria on December 11.
World Cup Race Schedule
All times are GMT
Fri 27 Nov
Men's Skeleton 1pm
Sat 28 Nov
Women's Bobsleigh 8am
2-man Bobsleigh 1pm
Sun 29 Nov
2-man Bobsleigh 1pm
Europa Cup Race Schedule
All times are GMT
Fri 27 Nov
Women's Skeleton 1pm
Men's Skeleton 3.45pm
Sat 28 Nov
Women's Skeleton 8am
Men's Skeleton 8am
