CROWLEY CONTINUES STUNNING START FOR BRITISH SKELETON

British Skeleton’s superb start to the new season continued in the early hours of Friday morning as Brogan Crowley won World Cup silver in Whistler.

Crowley’s maiden medal came just a few hours after Marcus Wyatt had won gold and Matt Weston bronze in the men’s race at the same venue.

The 28-year-old jumped up from sixth after the first run to joint second at the finish to smash her previous personal best of fifth in the first of eight scheduled World Cup competitions this season.

Crowley set a new start record - just as Wyatt and Weston had done earlier on - as she finished level with American Hallie Clarke and 18 hundredths of a second behind reigning Olympic Champion Hannah Neise in Canada.

The former GB Youth heptathlete clocked a combined time of 1 minute 47.58 seconds, with a stunning start time of 4.74 seconds in Run 2 helping her overhaul the likes of Olympic medalist Kimberly Bos on the way to the podium.

The result came in just Crowley’s 15th World Cup start and nine months after she placed 23rd in her first Olympic Winter Games in Beijing.

It also marked the first time that Great Britain had won medals in both men’s and women’s skeleton at the same World Cup race since double Olympic champion Lizzy Yarnold and fellow Olympic medalist Dom Parsons won gold and bronze respectively in Calgary in November 2013.

Fellow Brit Laura Deas finished 12th in a time of 1.48.91.

Bobsleigh action takes centre stage tomorrow as Brad Hall and Taylor Lawrence go for GB in the 2-man event from 10.30pm GMT, before Greg Cackett and Arran Gulliver join them for the 4-man competition 24 hours later.

The circuit heads to Park City in the United States of America next week.

Rights free imagery courtesy of Viesturs Lacis.

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