Skeletoni Christopher Grotheer reaches for gold at the home World Championships in Winterberg. The Beijing Olympic champion leads the competition after two of four runs. Felix Keisinger and Alex Jungk are also still in the running for bronze. For the women, Hannah Neise also starts the second day of the final from third place, but defending champion Susanne Kreher and Jacqueline Pfeifer are also not far away from the medal ranks.
In terms of weather, Winterberg was not at its best on the first day of the World Cup. The heavy rain took its toll on the Skeltoni and didn’t always ensure a level playing field on the water-soaked and correspondingly slow track.
In the men’s category, the best of the winter still took the lead: Christopher Grotheer from BRC Thüringen leads after the first day. However, the 31-year-old is only 0.04 seconds ahead of the equally strong Brit Matt Weston.
Duel for gold among men
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!”
Hannah Neise turns it up and competes for the medals
In the morning the women were already at the start. And the German trio was only able to breathe deeply after the second run. After a collectively weak first round, Hannah Neise (BSC Winterberg), Susanne Kreher (BSC Sachsen Oberbärenburg) and Jacqueline Pfeifer (RSG Hochsauerland) turned things up in the second round and kept all chances of winning a medal. The trio also benefited from the heavy rain that came later and a faux pas by top favorite Kimberley Bos.
Drama about top favorite Kimberley Bos
The Dutchwoman, who celebrated six World Cup victories this season and started the race as the World Cup leader and absolute favorite for gold, had massive problems with her helmet before her second run, which she couldn’t close. She had to rush off a few seconds before the start countdown ended. She promptly made a mistake and fell from first to eleventh place after an extremely nervous and slow ride.
The German trio is catching up
The German women had previously done much better in the absence of record world champion Tina Hermann, who was surprisingly sidelined. First, world champion Susanne Kreher entered the track in eleventh place after the first run, showed a flawless run, took the lead and gained five places at the end. Things went similarly well for Jacqueline Pfeifer, who finished ninth after the first run, directly behind Kreher.
Hannah Neise: “Everything is possible”
Finally, Hannah Neise, the best German of the first run (seventh place), took to the track. And the Olympic champion kept her nerve and reduced the gap to Hallie Clarke (Canada) and Tabitha Stoeker (Great Britain), who were leading after the first day, to just a few hundredths of a second. Before the final day, Neise is 0.06 seconds behind the leading Canadian. Kreher and Pfeifer also still have realistic chances of a podium finish, 0.14 and 0.16 seconds behind respectively.
“We know that anything is possible, especially given the weather conditions,” said Neise on the sports show microphone. She admitted that she had a small advantage due to the early start in the second run. “That played well into our hands. Tomorrow the weather will be better and hopefully the conditions will be fairer. It’s very close.”
Susanne Kreher is also optimistic before the second day of the finals: “The runner was probably not ideal for the weather, but I was able to gain a few places in the second run.” The world champion also expects an exciting final: “The third run is the most important. It depends on how you deal with it mentally and who can make a statement.”