Christopher Grotheer and Axel Jungk have nurtured hopes for Germany’s first Olympic skeleton medal, world champion Grotheer is even on course for gold halfway through the race.
After two of four runs, the man from Oberhof is clearly leading in the Yanqing Sliding Center ahead of Jungk (+0.70 seconds) and the co-favorite Chinese Yan Wengang (+0.75). In the first round, Grotheer set a track record in exactly 60 seconds.
Before the two final races on Friday (8:20 p.m. OZ/1:20 p.m. CET), the German skeletons can look forward to an excellent starting position.
Alexander Gassner took ninth place (+1.40). The Winterberger had won the pre-Olympic tests in China last November. The former vice world champion Jungk had to tremble about his start after his arrival in Beijing because of an initially positive corona test.
Grotheer with almost flawless runs
If the German men want to win the first medal in Olympic history, they will need “Consistency”, national coach Christian Baude had predicted in advance: “That will be the key.”
Grotheer proved this and found an almost perfect line. Only after the finish line did the 29-year-old, like almost all drivers, hit a barrier in both runs.
Sochi Olympic champion Alexander Tretjakow (ROC / +0.87) lurks in fourth place, six-time world champion Martins Dukurs from Latvia is sixth (0.91) after uneven rides. Yun Sungbin (South Korea), Olympic champion in Pyeongchang 2018, has big problems in twelfth (+2.10) and, as expected, probably no chance of a medal.