'Super Sunday' - Weston and Stoecker win mixed skeleton gold for Team GB
Matt Weston and Tabby Stoecker teamed up to claim Olympic gold in the mixed team skeleton competition.Weston was a dominant winner of the men's title on Friday evening at the Cortina Sliding Centre, while Stoecker had to settle for fifth in the women's event on Saturday.
Combining for the mixed event, Weston was bidding to become the first British athlete to win two medals at the same Winter Olympics, but he had work to do as he took the second leg.
However, Weston excelled as he quickly reeled back in the advantage held by Germans Susanne Kreher and Axel Jungk to eventually record a victory by 0.17seconds.Fellow Britons Marcus Wyatt and Freya Tarbit were just edged into fourth place by the other German team of Jacqueline Pfeifer and Christopher Grotheer.
Results: Skelton - mixed team
Tabby Stoecker/Matt Weston (Great Britain) - 1:59.36
Susanne Kehrer/Axel Jungk (Germany) - 1:59.53 (+0.17)
Jacqueline Pfeifer/Christopher Grotheer (Germany) - 1:59.54 (+0.18)
Freya Tarbit/Marcus Wyatt (Great Britain) - 1:59.65 (+0.29).
"Luckily I felt like I knew what I needed to do," Weston said. "I took a load of confidence from the individual event and I almost had to 'be boring' to get the job done and do it again."
"I can't believe it," Stoecker added. "It's a team effort and when Matt came down and we were in the green, I was just in shock."
Weston's heroics sees him become the first Briton ever to win two golds at a Winter Olympics.Following the earlier mixed team snowboard triumph, the dramatic victory for Weston and Stoecker sees Team GB claim two golds on the same day at a Winter Olympics for the first time.It also marks the first time Britain have won three golds at a single Winter Games.
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Weston made up a 0.3s deficit in his run and Wyatt, who is his room-mate on tour, paid tribute to his abilities."It's incredible, he's a hell of a skeleton athlete and he's now tied Lizzy [Yarnold, dual women's skeleton champion] for I think most decorated Winter Olympian from GB, so it's not a bad day," said Wyatt.Tarbit added: "I mean, obviously it's such conflicting feelings."We're so so happy for Matt and Tabby to do well and we've seen some of our closest friends just win gold, so on the one hand we're absolutely buzzing for them but on the other hand it's obviously gutting to miss out on a medal."
