From Lake Placid, USA
(December 14, 2021) – Australia’s Nick Timmings has had a career that’s spanned ten seasons, 11 tracks, and 18 pages of results on his IBSF athlete profile. He’s raced on every tour, and won a few medals in his time. But he’d never won gold.
That all changed in the seventh race of the IBSF North American Cup, where Timmings came from behind to win in Lake Placid, edging out Israel’s Jared Firestone.
Firestone carried a .36 second advantage over Timmings into the second heat. On his second run Timmings put down a time that would prove to be over .4 faster than anyone else before him. Firestone’s second effort was quick and good enough for silver, but not enough to hold back the Aussie.
The fold for Timmings came in his 48th North American Cup race and his 97th race overall between all tours and championships.
Firestone’s silver was also a career-best and came one day after tying his previous career best of third.
Spain’s Ander Mirambell finished third for his third podium of the season. He and Timmings will square off in the eighth and final race of the season to determine the North American Cup men’s skeleton champion. Mirambell currently holds an 18 point lead over Timmings going into the final round.
Canada’s Kyle Donsberger finished fourth, also a career-best. Brendan Doyle finished fifth, and Akwasi Frimpong tied a career-best finish with a sixth place effort.
Canada loaded up the top ten with all four of their sliders. David Park was edged out of a top six and finished seventh on the strength of the quickest start in both runs. Jimmie Airey and Troy Wilson finished ninth and tenth respectively.
The United States’ continued their efforts to get some young sliders valuable experience. Bradley Nicol led the way for them in 14th place, with Darryl Payne in 15th and Samuel Arquit in 16th. Payne had the second quickest start in both heats.
Results:
| Pos | Name | Nation | Bib | Start 1 | Start 2 | Run 1 | Run 2 | Finish |
| 1 | Nicholas Timmings | AUS | 8 | 5.07 | 5.02 | 55.31 | 55.22 | 1:50.53 |
| 2 | Jared Firestone | ISR | 7 | 5.04 | 5.10 | 54.95 | 55.67 | 1:50.62 |
| 3 | Ander Mirambell | ESP | 13 | 5.32 | 5.38 | 55.39 | 55.66 | 1:51.05 |
| 4 | Kyle Donsberger | CAN | 10 | 5.19 | 5.10 | 56.32 | 56.41 | 1:52.73 |
| 5 | Brendan Doyle | IRL | 4 | 5.14 | 5.15 | 56.43 | 56.32 | 1:52.75 |
| 6 | Akwasi Frimpong | GHA | 11 | 5.13 | 5.07 | 56.54 | 56.29 | 1:52.83 |
| 7 | David Park | CAN | 12 | 4.92 | 4.99 | 56.71 | 56.26 | 1:52.97 |
| 8 | Jeff Bauer | LUX | 6 | 5.37 | 5.41 | 56.44 | 56.90 | 1:53.34 |
| 9 | Jimmie Airey | CAN | 5 | 5.05 | 5.06 | 56.96 | 56.42 | 1:53.38 |
| 10 | Troy Wilson | CAN | 14 | 5.05 | 5.09 | 56.57 | 57.10 | 1:53.67 |
| 11 | Sebastian Zeleznik | CZE | 1 | 5.13 | 5.15 | 56.99 | 57.27 | 1:54.26 |
| 12 | Jonathan Yaw | MAS | 9 | 5.12 | 5.17 | 57.10 | 57.32 | 1:54.42 |
| 13 | Peter Makrides | AUS | 2 | 5.17 | 5.29 | 57.12 | 57.94 | 1:55.06 |
| 14 | Bradley Nicol | USA | 16 | 5.18 | 5.18 | 57.92 | 58.24 | 1:56.16 |
| 15 | Darryl Payne | USA | 3 | 4.98 | 5.01 | 58.54 | 58.86 | 1:57.40 |
| 16 | Samuel Arquit | USA | 15 | 5.47 | 5.50 | 59.95 | 58.73 | 1:58.68 |
