Weston wins World Cup gold
World Champion Matt Weston won his first World Cup gold of the season in Innsbruck on Friday afternoon.
Weston won five of the eight World Cup races last term and he was back on the top of the podium with victory in Igls in the final competition before Christmas.
The 26-year-old, who finished second in the Overall World Cup standings and became Britain’s first men’s World Champion for 15 years in a stunning season last time out, clocked a two-run time of 1 minute 44.84 seconds to win by 0.15 seconds from South Korea’s Seunggi Jung.
Weston won silver in La Plagne last weekend (with Jung pipping him to gold) and is now up to third in the overall standings, having placed 10th in the season opener in Beijing in November.
Fellow Brit Craig Thompson came within five hundredths of a second of joining Weston on the podium as he finished fourth a week after coming fifth in France. Germany’s Felix Keisinger finished third, 0.32 seconds adrift of Weston.
Marcus Wyatt, who won bronze seven days ago, was ninth, with Jacob Salisbury 14th in a 33-strong field in just the third World Cup start of his career. Thompson and Wyatt now sit fourth and fifth in the overall standings with three of the eight races complete.
“I was annoyed with silver last week so I’m much happier with the result this week,” said Weston.
“This is my favourite track - it seems to suit me quite well, even when I don’t slide as well as I want to (which I didn’t feel as though I did today, to be honest).
I’m hoping this is just the start of a run of good results this season as I feel there’s lot more in the tank. I’m aiming to keep developing and keep getting faster all the way to Winterberg for the World Champs - that’s my main goal for the season.
“I’m gutted that Craig didn’t quite make the medals but overall it wasn’t a bad performance at all for GB.”
Weston and the men’s team are next in action in St Moritz, Switzerland (the venue for his World Championship triumph 11 months ago) on January 12.
World Cup events follow in Lillehammer, Sigulda and Altenberg, before the season showpiece in Winterberg in late February. Lake Placid then hosts the final World Cup race of the campaign at the end of March.
