Surprise at the Skeleton World Championships: 19-year-old Hallie Clarke is crowned the youngest world champion of all time in Winterberg. Hannah Neise takes bronze. Christopher Grotheer can win gold among the men.
The starting position was extremely close: Hannah Neise and the 19-year-old Canadian Hallie Clarke didn’t lose a hundredth of a second after three runs. Neise, 2022 Olympic champion, Clarke U20 world champion 2023, no victory in the World Cup yet – both went into the decisive race as leaders.
One mistake and a bit of snow – Neise missed out on gold
Clarke didn’t show any nerves in the fourth round either. A strong start, small improvements at the beginning, no more errors after that. Neise was the last to enter the ice channel and had to deliver. A small mistake at the beginning was enough to decide the World Cup. Because just before Neise’s run, it started snowing. Small differences that ultimately cost too much time. In the end, the 23-year-old even slipped to third place (+0.26). Silver went to Belgian Kim Meylemans, who won a medal at a World Championships for the first time.
Neise after bronze: “I’m really happy”
Neise didn’t seem really disappointed after the race: “I’m really happy here in front of my home crowd, in front of all the people who came from my hometown”said Neise on the Sportschau microphone, even though she admitted: “I would have hoped that things would get better. But in the end the World Cup medal is there. That was my goal and I’m really happy about it.“
The national coach reacted somewhat less euphorically: “I’m a little more disappointed. Because the weather was beautiful all day and just before Hannah starts it starts snowing. Bad luck, just bad luck.”said Christian Baude.
Pfeifer comes fifth – Kehrer disappointed
Jacqueline Pfeifer was also in top form on the final day. With an almost flawless run, she applied for her second World Championship medal after silver in 2015, but in the end it wasn’t enough. The front riders showed no weakness. In the end she ended up in fifth place.
For Susanne Kreher it was a day to forget. Having started in Winterberg as the reigning world champion, she still had every chance of winning a medal after the first two runs. But in the third run she made mistake after mistake and lost more than half a second to the leaders. Even in the fourth run she couldn’t pull it out. In the end she ended up in tenth place.
The big favorite wasn’t happy in Winterberg either. Kimberley Bos, overall World Cup leader from the Netherlands, wasted her chances of winning a medal the day before. Because she couldn’t close her helmet, she had to start completely hastily and slipped to eleventh place. The adverse conditions on the first day in Winterberg made their journey even more difficult.
Duel for gold among men
In the men’s category, however, the best of the winter took the lead on Thursday: Christopher Grotheer from BRC Thuringia leads after the first day. However, the 31-year-old is only 0.04 seconds ahead of the equally strong Brit Matt Weston.
The two rivals will probably fight for gold and silver on Friday. Because there is a big gap between them and the pursuers. This is led by the Chinese Zheng Yin (+ 0.73 seconds). But Yin is not yet sure of the bronze rank. Things are tight behind him. Also there is Axel Jungk (BSC Sachsen Oberbärenburg), who made a few minor mistakes in the first run and was initially in tenth place. In the second round he improved to fifth place (+0.850).
Jungk and Keisinger are still hoping for bronze
Felix Keisinger (WSV Königssee) also has a small chance of winning bronze. As third after the first run, he didn’t cope well with the amount of water in the ice channel in the second run and fell behind Jungk to seventh place (+0.900).
“The runner I have in it runs very, very well in the conditions”said Grotheer on the ARD sports show. “I tried out a few things in training on the slow track. It paid off.” His plan for the second day of the finals: “Just attack!”