Lake Placid (RWH): Skeleton athlete Janine Flock of Austria is the first World Cup winner of the Olympic season and rounded off her fifth win in a World Cup race by breaking the track record. At the opening race in the BMW IBSF World Cup season in Lake Placid (USA), the 2016 World Championship runner-up smashed her own record from last year (54.84 seconds) by completing her first run in just 54.69 seconds. Following 0.26 seconds behind Janine Flock was Elisabeth Vathje of Canada, who took second place in Lake Placid. The UK’s Lizzy Yarnold, the 2014 Olympic Champion, finished in third.
The Olympic bronze medallist Elena Nikitina of Russia finished fourth in Lake Placid and also broke the start record on both her runs. The new record (5.03 seconds) is over 15 hundredths of a second faster than the old record set by Marina Gilardoni of Switzerland.
The World Champion and current holder of the World Cup, Jacqueline Lölling of Germany, was fourth after the first heat but fell back to finish eighth after a mistake in her final run.
Following the first of the season’s eight races in the BMW IBSF World Cup 2017/2018, the overall standings for the Olympic winter are as follows: Janine Flock (AUT, 225 points) leads Elisabeth Vathje (CAN, 210) and Lizzy Yarnold (GBR, 200). ©RWH2017
Photo: Viesturs Lacis
