Great Britain won World Cup gold, silver and bronze in the opening race of the new skeleton season on Saturday.
Amelia Coltman triumphed in the women’s race in South Korea, while Marcus Wyatt and Matt Weston finished second and third in the men’s event a few hours later.
It was the second time in as many seasons that GB have won a hat trick of World Cup medals in a single day after Tabby Stoecker took gold, Weston silver and Wyatt bronze in La Plagne in December last year.
Coltman kicked off the new campaign here in PyeongChang by claiming her first ever World Cup medal at the home of Great Britain’s triple Olympic triumph in 2018.
The 28-year-old matched Lizzy Yarnold’s stunning success at a track that hasn’t featured on the sport’s top circuit since the country’s greatest Winter Olympian won her second Olympic gold six years ago. The win marked just the second women’s World Cup gold for Great Britain since Laura Deas - who won bronze in that 2018 Olympics in Korea - took top spot in Altenberg in 2015.
Coltman clocked 1 minute 48.41 seconds to beat Austria’s Janine Flock - the athlete Yarnold & Deas pipped to Olympic medals - by 0.08 seconds, with Brazil’s Nicole Silveira taking bronze.
Fellow Brit Freya Tarbit came agonisingly close to joining Coltman on the podium as she missed a maiden medal by just two hundredths of a second.
Much of the race order changed significantly from the first to second runs as track conditions got significantly trickier, with GB’s Tabby Stoecker among those to fall out of contention after a strong start. Stoecker, who won the first race of last season in La Plagne, was third at halfway but finished equal 18th in a 38-strong outfit overall.
In the men’s race, only reigning Olympic Champion Christopher Grotheer finished ahead of Wyatt and Weston in a 34-strong line up.
Neither GB men’s medalist had raced in PyeongChang prior to this month but both started the season strongly despite their inexperience on a technically demanding track.
Wyatt moved from second after the first run to lead with only Grotheer to go in Run 2 and it looked as though gold might be on the cards before the German clawed back his advantage after initially slipping behind the Brit early in his final run.
European Champion Wyatt finished 0.15 seconds behind Grotheer in a time of 1 minute 46.47 seconds, with reigning Overall World Cup winner Weston a further 0.48 back after jumping up from 10thspot at the halfway mark. Team-mate Craig Thompson placed 13th.
“It’s been a really good day for the team on a track where we’ve got very limited experience amongst the group,” said the BBSA’s Executive Performance Director, Natalie Dunman.
“To come away with three medals and a fourth is a really good marker for the first race of the season, particularly when we were focussed on progression as much performance this week.
“They were both pretty crazy races but we put down really good performances, too. It’s easy to forget just how difficult it is to win three medals in a day at this level so we should be really proud of that achievement.
“It’s a good start and now we look to kick on again tomorrow.”
Race 2 of the World Cup season takes place at the same venue tomorrow.
The women’s competition stats at 7am GMT, with the men following at 11am.
The circuit then heads to Beijing, China (the home of the last Olympic Winter Games in 2022), before heading back to Europe for two more races before Christmas.