Wales’ Olympic bronze medallist Laura Deas will be aiming for her first World Championship medal next month after being named in a six-strong British Skeleton squad for the season’s showpiece in Canada.
Deas made Olympic history alongside Lizzy Yarnold in PyeongChang 12 months ago and will hope to be in the running for the podium in Whistler on March 7th and 8th.
The 30-year-old from Wrexham heads to the season’s showpiece event in high spirits having won her first World Cup medal in three years when she took bronze in Calgary on Saturday.
Deas, whose World Championship best is seventh in Winterberg in 2015, is joined in the women’s team by Madelaine Smith and Ashleigh Pittaway, who will both be making their World Championship debuts in Whistler.
Deas saved her best until last at the weekend in the final World Cup race of the campaign in Calgary.
She sat seventh after the first run but produced the joint quickest time in Run 2 to medal for the first time on the World Cup circuit for more than three years.
“I’m really chuffed with today’s bronze. It’s great to be back on a podium – it’s what I’m always aiming for and it’s a pretty special feeling,” said Deas, who won World Cup silver at the same track in 2014 but hadn’t been on the podium since winning bronze in Lake Placid in January 2016.
“It’s been quite a disrupted season for me, missing two races and lots of ice time due to illness and injury, so I’m really pleased to be finding some form as I head towards the Worlds.
“We’ve been up against it here this week with only one day of training before a double race (Calgary also hosted the rescheduled Konigssee race that had been cancelled because of the weather last month), but the whole team has pulled together really well to put in some strong performances.
“The last time I raced here was four years ago, so I just had to try and get everything I could out of the training day and put down the best runs I could in the race. I did that in the second run and I’m really pleased to end the World Cup on a high.”
IBSF World Championships in Whistler, Canada
British Skeleton squads:
Men: Jerry Rice, Jack Thomas, Marcus Wyatt
Women: Laura Deas, Ashleigh Pittaway, Madelaine Smith
Skeleton race schedule (all times are GMT)
Thurs 7 Mar
Men’s Skeleton 5pm
Women’s Skeleton 8.30pm
Fri 8 Mar
Men’s Skeleton 5pm
Women’s Skeleton 8.30pm