From Lake Placid, USA
(March 7, 2025) – The winner of the 2025 IBSF World Championships men’s skeleton race wasn’t in doubt after the first day, and most certainly wasn’t in doubt after the third run, as Matt Weston set a track record in his third heat on his way to the second largest victory in men’s skeleton world championships history.
The third heat kicked off with Weston setting another quick time off the top, the second quickest of the heat and broke the track record held by Alexander Tretiakov set in 2019.
At that point, with a three-heat lead over Axel Jungk of over 1.5 seconds, the final run became academic as Weston won his second world championship with the second largest margin of victory ever in a men’s skeleton world championships, 1.9 seconds over teammate Marcus Wyatt.
The record for the largest margin of victory was also in a Lake Placid championships, when Martins Dukurs beat Frank Rommel by 2.08 seconds.
“This is pretty amazing,” Weston said after the race. “To have two titles to my name is pretty amazing. And for both of them to be both massive wins, I was not expecting that! I never took my foot off the gas, took every run as “run 1″ and tried to reset.”
“I didn’t think about any advantage I had, the main thing I had going through my mind was that I was pumped for Marcus. I was so really really happy for him, and tried to not allow for a smile at the start!”
Behind Weston, Marcus Wyatt and Axel Jungk dueled for the silver and bronze positions. The two were separated by just .03 after the second run, and after three runs it was more fo the same with Jungk just a tenth ahead of Wyatt. While neither slider had what they would consider an outstanding run in the fourth heat, Wyatt’s was just a bit better than Jungk’s, as the Brit again out-paced Jungk by just .03 over four runs.
“We knew we could go one-two,” Wyatt said of the British sweep of the top two spots. “You look at the season we had with consistent podiums and a one-two in the World Cup. I put it in a bit of doubt after Run 3, but I’m really happy for Matt. He executed really well and much better than anyone, he really deserves it!”
Jungk was happy with his bronze medal, especially despite very iffy track conditions in Lake Placid during training.
“I don’t think anyone could be sure about how the race would go after training,” Jungk said. “Temperatures and ice conditions and weather were all different and it was tough for everyone. But I think I managed it really well and I’m very happy with a bronze medal.”
The first slider off the podium was Ukraine’s Vladyslav Heraskevych, who had an outstanding Friday with the fourth quickest run of the third heat and second quickest of the fourth to move up from eighth overnight.
“This is the best result of all of Ukranian winter sport! It’s amazing to be here, but of course we wanted to medal!”
China’s Zheng Yin had put himself in position to medal after three runs with the second quickest run of the second heat, but a bumpy fourth run dropped him back to fifth.
American Austin Florian rounded out the top six. After entering the day in seventh place, he set the third quickest time of the heat to contend for medals, but a tough fourth run dropped him back to six. Despite that, he had the quick start in all four heats, and was generally happy with his race.
“Overall I’m pretty happy with my race,” Florian said. “We struggled a little with equipment right off the bat and didn’t have the right setup for the weather yesterday. I was much more dialed in today but made a couple key mistakes that probably cost me a podium spot. But I’m happy I was able to make mistakes and still end up sixth.”
Daniel Barefoot, the only other American in the field, had a strong second day where he moved up from 14th to 11th with a pair of top ten runs
“I think that I realized yesterday that the only way I’m going to slide well is if I have fun,” Barefoot said after his fourth heat. “Having fun was the priority this morning, and like I don’t even know how anybody did. I was just listening to music and having fun and sliding!”
Australian Nick Timmings finished 20th, with two top 20 runs to round out the weekend. Afterward, he was pleased with his performance.
“This is honestly a little better than I expected,” Timmings said. “I was having a little bit of trouble in training. I was very inconsistent and having trouble with some corners, but I put it all together today!”
Laurence Bostock was 17th as the third and final British slider in the field, while Malaysia’s Jonathan Yaw put together a strong final run but finished 29th.
Results:
| Pos | Name | Nation | Bib | WC Rank | Run 1 | Run 2 | Run 3 | Run 4 | Total |
| 1 | Matt Weston | GBR | 1 | 1 | 53.83 | 55.19 | 52.80 | 53.66 | 3:35.48 |
| 2 | Marcus Wyatt | GBR | 3 | 2 | 54.27 | 55.64 | 53.59 | 53.88 | 3:37.38 |
| 3 | Axel Jungk | GER | 5 | 5 | 54.27 | 55.76 | 53.44 | 53.94 | 3:37.41 |
| 4 | Vladyslav Heraskevych | UKR | 8 | 7 | 54.59 | 55.91 | 53.38 | 53.61 | 3:37.49 |
| 5 | Zheng Yin | CHN | 7 | 9 | 54.71 | 55.69 | 53.28 | 53.92 | 3:37.60 |
| 6 | Austin Florian | USA | 12 | 13 | 54.72 | 55.77 | 53.29 | 53.87 | 3:37.65 |
| 7 | Christopher Grotheer | GER | 2 | 3 | 54.44 | 55.61 | 53.72 | 53.93 | 3:37.70 |
| 8 | Wenhao Chen | CHN | 6 | 8 | 54.45 | 55.99 | 53.61 | 53.84 | 3:37.89 |
| 9 | Qinwei Lin | CHN | 10 | 10 | 54.93 | 55.82 | 53.74 | 53.52 | 3:38.01 |
| 10 | Amdedeo Bagnis | ITA | 14 | 15 | 54.59 | 56.32 | 53.97 | 53.64 | 3:38.52 |
| 11 | Daniel Barefoot | USA | 19 | 22 | 55.19 | 56.19 | 53.61 | 53.83 | 3:38.82 |
| 12 | Alexander Schlintner | AUT | 17 | 23 | 54.92 | 56.00 | 54.01 | 54.24 | 3:39.17 |
| 13 | Jisoo Kim | KOR | 15 | 16 | 54.69 | 56.05 | 53.80 | 54.65 | 3:39.19 |
| 14 | Felix Keixinger | GER | 9 | 6 | 55.16 | 56.03 | 53.99 | 54.02 | 3:39.20 |
| 15 | Samuel Maier | AUT | 4 | 4 | 55.33 | 56.51 | 53.90 | 53.75 | 3:39.49 |
| 16 | Rasmus Johansen | DEN | 11 | 11 | 55.64 | 56.06 | 53.65 | 54.45 | 3:39.80 |
| 17 | Laurence Bostock | GBR | 16 | 30 | 55.20 | 56.38 | 54.10 | 54.13 | 3:39.81 |
| 18 | Mattia Gaspari | ITA | 13 | 14 | 55.34 | 56.15 | 53.70 | 54.63 | 3:39.82 |
| 19 | Vinzenz Buff | SUI | 18 | 18 | 55.45 | 56.04 | 54.43 | 54.35 | 3:40.27 |
| 20 | Nicholas Timmings | AUS | 20 | 25 | 55.44 | 56.40 | 54.12 | 54.35 | 3:40.31 |
| 21 | Yaroslav Lavreniuk | UKR | 22 | 27 | 55.64 | 56.36 | 54.33 | 54.26 | 3:40.59 |
| 22 | Seunggi Jung | KOR | 29 | 42 | 55.44 | 56.88 | 54.12 | 54.32 | 3:40.76 |
| 23 | Adrian Rodriguez | ESP | 26 | 32 | 55.88 | 56.23 | 54.30 | 54.43 | 3:40.84 |
| 24 | Colin Freeling | BEL | 25 | 26 | 55.71 | 56.46 | 54.84 | 54.84 | 3:41.85 |
| 25 | Jared Firestone | ISR | 23 | 40 | 55.94 | 56.33 | 55.13 | 54.99 | 3:42.39 |
| 26 | Livio Summermatter | SUI | 21 | 24 | 56.09 | 57.40 | 54.42 | 2:47.91 | |
| 27 | Akwasi Frimpong | GHA | 28 | 44 | 56.19 | 57.97 | 55.33 | 2:49.49 | |
| 28 | Timon Drahonovsky | CZE | 27 | 34 | 56.85 | 57.01 | 55.88 | 2:49.74 | |
| 29 | Jonathan Yaw | MAS | 24 | 38 | 56.36 | 58.63 | 54.97 | 2:49.96 |