Kent athlete Matt Weston posted a track record to put him in prime position to secure skeleton gold and Team GB’s first medal at the Winter Olympics after topping the leaderboard today.
The 28-year-old from Tunbridge Wells leads the standings at the halfway stage of the event at the Milan-Cortina games in Italy.
Weston is currently sitting in gold medal position with a 0.3-second lead before the competition reaches its dramatic climax tomorrow.
The double-world skeleton champion is dubbed as Britain’s biggest medal contender and opened up a healthy advantage ahead of the field if he can maintain clean runs in his final two on Friday evening.
He was the only slider to post a time under 56 seconds, clocking 55.88 seconds in heat two – the track record.
This adds to his to add to his 56.21 seconds in run one on the sliding track.
He now has an overall time of 1:52.09 in a competition usually decided on by just hundredths of a second.
German slider Axel Jungk, who won silver in Beijing four years ago, is in second place with a time of 1:52.39, while his compatriot and defending Olympic champion Christopher Grotheer is in third with 1:52.55.
Weston’s fellow Brit Marcus Wyatt is in seventh place with a combined time of 1:53.21 – 0.66 seconds outside of the medal places.
The two spearhead the men’s charge while Tabitha Stoecker, Freya Tarbit and Amelia Coltman help make up Britain’s biggest-ever skeleton team at a Winter Games.
Meanwhile, Broadstairs’ Taylor Lawrence, who competes in the two and four-man bobsleigh, starts his campaign next Monday ( February 16).
The final two runs to decide the skeleton gold medal are tomorrow evening at 6.30pm.
