Wyatt 7th in season opener
The opening race of the new World Cup season saw Marcus Wyatt finish as the top placed Brit in the men’s skeleton as he placed seventh in Beijing.
Wyatt, who won Overall World Cup bronze last season, clocked a two-run time of 2 minutes 2.48 seconds in a race won by the reigning Olympic Champion, Christopher Grotheer.
Chinese sliders Wenhao Chen and Wengang Yan won silver and bronze respectively on home ice.
Great Britain’s current World Champion, Matt Weston, was challenging for the medals from fourth spot at halfway but an early mistake in his second run robbed him of any speed as he eventually finished in 10th.
Craig Thompson finished ninth, with Jacob Salisbury 12th on his World Cup debut.
Amelia Coltman was 13th for GB in the women’s race in a time of 2.08.02.
Coltman was making just the fourth World Cup start of her career, with all three previous appearances coming back in late 2020.
Overall World Cup Champion Tina Hermann made it a double success for Germany just under two years after she missed out on Olympic medal when she finished fourth at the same track.
China's Dan Zhao was just two hundredths of a second behind Hermann and Canada's Mirela Rahneva finished third a further 0.16 seconds back.
With leading pilot Brad Hall currently recovering from surgery, there is no British involvement in this weekend’s bobsleigh races.
The World Cup circuit takes a two-week break after this weekend as it heads to Europe for two more races pre-Christmas.
Next up is La Plagne on Friday, December 8th, with the French track returning to the top-tier calendar for the first time in almost four years.
