|
Nov
17
|
Daly top U.S. finisher in men's skeleton race
|
Nov 17, 2012,
2:31 PM ET
Contact: Amanda Bird, USBSF Marketing & Communications Director
(518) 354-2250, abird@usbsf.com
Daly top U.S. finisher in men’s skeleton race
PARK CITY, Utah (Nov. 17, 2012)- John Daly (Smithtown, N.Y.) was the top U.S. finisher in the men’s skeleton World Cup race at the Utah Olympic Park this morning after posting the seventh best time out of 27 competitors. Daly was spoiled by his fourth place finish in last week’s season opener, and was hoping to crack into the medals today.
“I want to stick my hand out at the line to get there [on the podium],” Daly said. “I used to be really happy with a seventh, now I’m like, ‘Eh it’s alright.’”
The 2010 Olympian had some minor mistakes in the first heat, but put together a solid second run for a combined time of 1:40.38. Daly waited at the finish to see if his second run was enough to move him into the top six, but Canadian Eric Neilson laid down a clean run to edge him out.
“I don’t have an answer,” Daly said. “I’m happy with the way I slid, not with the time. I guess it just happens sometimes, I don’t really have an excuse.”
Latvian Martins Dukurs was the expected winner today, but his victory was only by 0.05 seconds over Germany’s Alexander Kroeckel. Alexander Tretiakov dominated the field off the starting block with a blistering push of 4.56 seconds, and he secured the bronze medal for Russia.
Matt Antoine (Prairie du Chien, Wisc.) continues to achieve his goal of top 10 performances this season. Antoine had surgery four months ago to repair a partial tear in his patella tendon, and is building back his strength and speed. Antoine was in 11th place after the first heat, but he moved up two positions into ninth with a two-run total of 1:40.87.
“I’m absolutely pleased with today,” Antoine said. “I knew this was going to be the most difficult track to get my top 10 at just because it’s such a push-dependent track. That’s a big achievement for me... I think things are progressing well. Each track I’m trying to get closer to what my best push is and I did that again today, so I’m continually cutting down my deficit at the start and I have to keep patient. It’s kinda hard right now to be pushing slower than I know what I am capable of when I’m healthy.”
Kyle Tress (Ewing, N.J.) was visibly disappointed with his performance today. Tress hoped to build upon his personal best result last week, but he struggled with the gliding Olympic track in Park City. Tress clocked a total time of 1:42.06 for 20th.
“I’m not really sure, it’s one of those days when things don’t go the way you planned,” Tress said. “I had really good training yesterday, I was very confident. I pushed well and then got in the track [today] and sometimes in skeleton one little piece goes wrong, it dominoes and then you have issues the whole way down the track. That’s what happened today.”
The Park City World Cup concludes this afternoon with the four-man bobsled race at 1 p.m. Visit www.fibt.com to watch a live streaming of the event, and catch it again on Universal Sports tomorrow.
Please contact Amanda Bird, USBSF Marketing & Communications Director, at abird@usbsf.com or 518-354-2250 with media inquiries.
Results:
1. Martins Dukurs (LAT) 1:39.71 (49.75, 49.96); 2: Alexander Kroeckel (GER) 1:39.76 (49.81, 49.95); 3. Alexander Tretiakov (RUS) 1:39.82 (49.81, 50.01);…7. John Daly (USA) 1:40.38 (50.13, 50.25);…9. Matt Antoine (USA) 1:40.87 (50.47, 50.40);…20. Kyle Tress (USA) 1:42.06 (50.77, 51.29);
About the U.S. Bobsled and Skeleton Federation
The United States Bobsled and Skeleton Federation, based in Lake Placid, N.Y., is the national governing body for the sports of bobsled and skeleton in the United States. The USBSF would like to thank its sponsors, suppliers and contributors for their support: BMW of North America, Under Armour, United States National Guard, Kampgrounds of America, Vivat!, Global Forwarding, KBC Helmets, Susan G. Komen for the Cure, Autism Speaks, Park City Lodging, EDAS/Ripxx, UberSense, Tesa Tape and Ferris Mfg. Corp. For more information, please visit the USBSF website at http://bobsled.teamusa.org.
###