Winterberg (RWH) Tina Hermann and Alexander Gassner are the new German Champions in the sport of skeleton.
In Winterberg, World Champion Tina Hermann won the women's competition and secured her fifth national title. World Cup overall champion Jacqueline Lölling came second, ahead of Hannah Neise, the silver medallist at the 2016 Winter Youth Olympic Games.
Hermann set a new track record in the first race in Winterberg: with a running time of 57.14 seconds she was almost three tenths of a second faster than two-time Olympic Champion Lizzy Yarnold. The British athlete had set the old record at her World Championship victory in Winterberg 2015. Lölling, Neise and fourth-placed Susanne Kreher also stayed below the old track record.
German champion in Men's Skeleton is Alexander Gassner. The World Championship bronze medallist and World Champion in Mixed Team Competition 2020 relegated World Champion Christopher Grotheer to second place by a hundredth of a second. Third place went to Junior World Champion Felix Keisinger, ahead of vice-world champion Axel Jungk. World Champion Grotheer set a new track record in Winterberg in the first run with 55.28 seconds. The previous record came from the World Championships 2015, then set by Martins Dukurs in his third of now six World Championships gold medals.
The German Championships were also the last qualifying runs of the German team for the BMW IBSF World Cup 2020/2021, with World Champions Tina Hermann and Christopher Grotheer being seeded already. National coach Christian Baude will announce the two further nominees for men and women on November 9th at a press conference of the Bobsleigh and Sled Federation for Germany (BSD). ©RWH2020
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Photos: BSD / Dietmar Reker, Sportpresse Reker
