From Sigulda, LAT
(February 17, 2023) – Matt Weston and the entire British men’s skeleton team had an outstanding post-Olympic redemption tour, and capped it off with a strong finish to the season, but it was Germany’s Christopher Grotheer who walked away with the season title.
Weston, Marcus Wyatt and Craig Thompson sat one-two-three going into the final run of the 2022/2023 IBSF men’s skeleton season, with Germans Felix Keisinger and Grotheer barely outside of the top three in fourth and fifth respectively.
The first order of business in the final run was Grotheer’s attempt to win his first ever World Cup title. The 2022 Olympic champion and two-time world champion sat in fifth place as he pushed off on his second run and only needed a clean trip down the Latvian course to clinch his first World Cup overall title. Grotheer’s second run ended up as the third quickest in the heat but was more than enough to give him the lead with four to go and clinch the World Cup title.
Keisinger slid next, and while his run wasn’t too far of Grotheer’s pace, he fell back one spot and eventually finished the day in fifth place.
That left the three British sliders. Thompson was the first to go of the three, and like Keisinger he had a very good second slide, but just couldn’t match what Grotheer put down. Though he fell to fourth, it was still the second best World Cup finish for the Brit.
Wyatt was the penultimate slider of the World Cup season, and his second run was better than his first, enough to put him into the lead with Weston to go, and also enough to move him into third overall in the season points to give him the third place crystal globe trophy.
Finally it was Matt Weston’s turn. His first run had been clean save for a near-crash out of Curve 14. His second run was cleaner, and while Grotheer’s finish meant no matter what Weston did he would finish the season in second place overall, he still threw down the best time of the competition to win his fifth World Cup race of the season, with Wyatt winning silver, and Grotheer bronze.
Thompson and Keisinger were fourth and fifth, respectively, while Zheng Yin’s second slide was enough to give China a sixth place finish.
The United States’ Austin Florian finished his season with a 14th place effort, his best in Sigulda, while Canada’s Blake Enzie finished 18th.
The overall points shook out to Grotheer winning by 51 points over Weston due mostly to Weston’s 18th place finish in Park City after a popped groove at the start. Wyatt finished the season in third place, with Jung fourth and Jungk in fifth. USA’s Austin Florian finished the year in eighth place.
Results:
| Pos | Name | Nation | Bib | Start 1 | Start 2 | Run 1 | Run 2 | Total |
| 1 | Matt Weston | GBR | 9 | 4.57 | 4.57 | 50.27 | 50.12 | 1:40.39 |
| 2 | Marcus Wyatt | GBR | 13 | 4.57 | 4.56 | 50.44 | 50.31 | 1:40.75 |
| 3 | Christopher Grotheer | GER | 10 | 4.70 | 4.66 | 50.59 | 50.43 | 1:41.02 |
| 4 | Craig Thompson | GBR | 15 | 4.60 | 4.58 | 50.55 | 50.53 | 1:41.08 |
| 5 | Felix Keisinger | GER | 4 | 4.61 | 4.56 | 50.58 | 50.57 | 1:41.15 |
| 6 | Zheng Yin | CHN | 11 | 4.50 | 4.55 | 50.79 | 50.55 | 1:41.34 |
| 7 | Seunggi Jung | KOR | 6 | 4.60 | 4.57 | 50.77 | 50.61 | 1:41.38 |
| 8 | Jisoo Kim | KOR | 5 | 4.54 | 4.54 | 50.69 | 50.70 | 1:41.39 |
| 9 | Wenhao Chen | CHN | 12 | 4.65 | 4.67 | 50.84 | 50.57 | 1:41.41 |
| 10 | Axel Jungk | GER | 8 | 4.67 | 4.66 | 50.88 | 50.62 | 1:41.50 |
| 11 | Mattia Gaspari | ITA | 3 | 4.80 | 4.82 | 50.74 | 50.82 | 1:41.56 |
| 12 | Vladyslav Heraskevych | UKR | 16 | 4.85 | 4.85 | 51.16 | 50.68 | 1:41.84 |
| 13 | Amedeo Bagnis | ITA | 1 | 4.63 | 4.62 | 50.98 | 50.88 | 1:41.86 |
| 14 | Florian Auer | AUT | 2 | 4.88 | 4.87 | 50.83 | 51.03 | 1:41.86 |
| 15 | Samuel Maier | AUT | 17 | 4.81 | 4.81 | 51.19 | 50.81 | 1:42.00 |
| 16 | Austin Florian | USA | 7 | 4.58 | 4.64 | 51.07 | 51.03 | 1:42.10 |
| 17 | Wengang Yan | CHN | 14 | 4.87 | 4.97 | 51.09 | 51.34 | 1:42.43 |
| 18 | Blake Enzie | CAN | 18 | 4.77 | 4.83 | 51.21 | 51.23 | 1:42.44 |
| 19 | Lucas Defayet | FRA | 19 | 4.84 | 4.84 | 51.66 | 51.61 | 1:43.27 |
