Christopher Grotheer gave the German skeleton men their first victory at the World Cup in Park City. Tina Hermann also achieved a strong result.
Skeleton Olympic champion Christopher Grotheer has clinched the first victory for the German men in the second World Cup race of the season. The 30-year-old from Oberhof won in Park City (USA) and set a track record of 1:36.26 minutes. South Korea’s Seunggi Jung came in second (+0.17 seconds). Third was Marcus Wyatt from Great Britain (+0.37).
Grotheer: “Could flip the switch”
“I felt very good. I was angry last week, I was really dissatisfied with my performance. I had planned much more. I was able to flip the lever, it was a really good performancesaid Grotheer, who finished only fifth at the season opener in Whistler.
Olympic skeleton champion Christopher Grotheer
Felix Keisinger (Königssee) was on course for a medal on the Utah Olympic Park Track for a long time, but ultimately finished fourth and missed the podium by four tenths of a second. Axel Jungk (Oberbärenburg), fourth in last week’s World Cup opener, finished seventh.
Hermann just missed victory
For the women, world champion Tina Hermann took the second place on the podium in the young season. Thanks to her strong performance, the 30-year-old from Königssee finished second, 0.10 seconds behind the winner Mirela Rahneva from Canada. Laura Deas (Great Britain) took bronze. Junior World Champion Susanne Kreher (Oberbärenburg) missed the podium by 0.02 seconds and finished fourth.
“It was a very exciting race, but unfortunately I didn’t get along as well as I did in the final training session“, said Hermann. There you are “an almost perfect ride” succeded.
German skeletons are getting going
After the surprising first World Cup victory of Olympic champion Hannah Neise last week in Whistler, Canada, this is the second top 3 placement for the German skeleton athletes. 22-year-old Neise from Winterberg finished sixth in Park City and continues to lead the World Cup. In the men’s race, Grotheer moves up to third place after all three starters missed the podium last week.
After World Cup races were held exclusively in Europe in the past two winters due to the corona pandemic, it was now the second race in North America. The next World Cup stop is Lake Placid (USA) on December 16th.