Dec 07

Daly finishes 11th to lead U.S. men in Winterberg

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Contact: Amanda Bird, USBSF Marketing & Communications Director
(518) 354-2250, abird@usbsf.com

Daly finishes 11th to lead U.S. men in Winterberg

WINTERBERG, Germany (Dec. 7, 2012)- John Daly (Smithtown, N.Y.) finished 11th today to lead the U.S. in the Winterberg men’s skeleton World Cup race.  Daly kick-started the season with a personal best fourth place finish in Lake Placid, N.Y. last month, and said he would never be satisfied with anything less than a medal position afterwards. 

“A top ten finish used to be exciting, but it’s not anymore,” Daly said after the Park City, Utah event.  “We expect to be medaling, so anything less is disappointing.”

Daly had a heartbreaking 2011-2012 season that began to unravel when he was disqualified for forgetting his start bib.  As he reached up to put on his helmet today, the words “Don’t forget your bib” were scrawled across the fingers of his gloves.  The 2010 Olympian has had a much-improved start to his 2012-2013 season, although today’s finish was not the direction he had hoped for.  Daly posted runs of 57.49 and 57.38 seconds for a combined time of 1:54.87.

Latvian Martins Dukurs took his familiar position as leader of the men’s competition.  Dukurs posted a two-run total of 1:52.71 to lead by 0.16 seconds over Russian Alexander Tretiakov. German Christopher Grotheer claimed his first career World Cup medal in his debut season on tour after posting a combined time of 1:53.61 for third place.

U.S. slider Kyle Tress (Ewing, N.J.) decided to take a risk by competing on a new sled this week after a disappointing finish in Whistler.  Tress improved his performance and was on the brink of the top 10 after clocking a total time of 1:55.11 for 13th position.

Matt Antoine (Prairie du Chien, Wisc.) was close to reaching his goal of top 10 performances throughout his season of recovery, but a late exit out of corner four in the final run inhibited his ability to gain time.  Antoine slid a total time of 1:55.20 for 15th place.

“You need velocity at the start on a track like this, and if you overdrive you’re scrubbing speed,” said U.S. skeleton head coach Tuffy Latour.  “We made some small mistakes today that cost us.  The men will pick themselves up, and we’re looking forward to a good team race tomorrow.  We have a lot of things in the works and the team will pull together.”

The Winterberg World Cup continues tomorrow with the women’s bobsled race at 9 am local time (3 am ET), the men’s two-man bobsled event at 1 pm (7 am ET), and the team competition at 4:30 pm (10:30 am ET). 

Please contact Amanda Bird, USBSF Marketing & Communications Director, at abird@usbsf.com or 518-354-2250 with media inquiries.

Results:

1. Martins Dukurs (LAT) 1:52.71 (56.35, 56.36); 2. Alexander Tretiakov (RUS) 1:52.87 (56.49, 56.38); 3. Christopher Grotheer (GER) 1:53.61 (56.87, 56.74);…11. John Daly (USA) 1:54.87 (57.49, 57.38);…13. Kyle Tress (USA) 1:55.11 (57.49, 57.62);…15. Matt Antoine (USA) 1:55.20 (57.56, 57.64);

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.

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