Olympic Bronze Medallist Laura Deas Eighth After Snowy Skeleton Battle

Laura Deas finished eighth in her first World Cup skeleton competition of the year in Germany. Wales’ Olympic bronze medallist had to battle tougher snowy conditions during her run in Altenberg. Deas began well with the fourth fastest start of the 20 sliders (5.53 seconds) on her first run, but she lost time in the second half of the run to finish in 59.71. The time was 1.12 seconds behind eventual race winner Elena Nikitina, who was sixth of the 20 sliders off the top. Lying eighth at halfway, the 30-year-old from Wrexham was unable to make ground on those above her as she clocked a time of 1.00.18 second time around. Deas’ overall time of 1:59.89 left her 2.47secs off the pace set by Russian Nikitina. She is now 14th overall in the World Cup rankings. Deas had gone into the event 17th in the rankings having finished seventh in Winterberg in December having missed the season opener in Sigulda. In 2015, Deas had won her maiden World cup race in Altenberg and was sixth in 2017 and has finished eighth two years on the trot.