Frank Rommel led Germany to a 1-2 finish in the men’s skeleton World Cup at Mount Van Hoevenberg on Friday.
Rommel finished the two runs in a combined 1 minute, 50.88 seconds to easily beat Sandro Stielicke, who finished in 1:51.36.
Martins Dukurs of Latvia, who won the World Cup opener a week ago at Park City, Utah, won the bronze, just 0.01 seconds behind Stielicke. Dukurs’ brother Tomass was fourth in 1:51.50.
PHOTO: EPA
Last February, Rommel struggled to 13th place in the world championships at Mount Van Hoevenberg, and his four victories in the World Cup regular season quickly became an icy afterthought.
“It’s kind of revenge for last year’s world championships here,” said Rommel, who will compete in the Winter Olympics in February. “It wasn’t my race then. This time I knew how to take care of myself. I’m quite happy to bring it all together today. It was a strong team performance. We have a good team.”
Earlier, Mellisa Hollingsworth won the women’s race to give Canada, host of the 2010 Winter Games, its third medal in two races.
The men didn’t fare so well. Jon Montgomery finished 12th and teammate Jeff Pain was 13th.
Hollingsworth led after the first heat and finished the race in 1:54.85 seconds to edge Shelley Rudman of Britain by 0.23 seconds.
Rudman finished just 0.05 seconds ahead of world champion Marion Trott of Germany, who took the bronze in 1:55.13.
Lin Yun-ju on Thursday handed Taiwan two key victories as they advanced to the semi-finals of the ITTF World Team Table Tennis Championships Finals in London. The Taiwan men’s table tennis team beat Sweden 3-2 in five singles matches. The 24-year-old Lin, Taiwan’s top-ranked player at world No. 7 and nicknamed the “Silent Assassin,” opened the tie by defeating world No. 2 Truls Moregard 3-0 (11-8, 11-9, 13-11) before clinching the deciding fifth match with a 3-0 (11-8, 11-9, 11-5) win over Anton Kallberg to hand his team the overall victory. Kuo Guan-hong put Taiwan up 2-0 with a 3-2 (4-11, 11-8, 8-11,
Aryna Sabalenka on Thursday said that she hoped she would be able to play tennis under the Belarusian flag after the International Olympic Committee lifted its ban on the country’s athletes competing in the Olympics. World No. 1 Sabalenka has had to compete under a neutral banner as a consequence of her country’s support for Russia following its ally’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022. The IOC earlier on Thursday lifted its ban on Belarusian athletes competing in the Olympics, although restrictions on Russian athletes remain in place. Asked whether the women’s tour would drop the ban on her representing her country, Sabalenka said:
China’s Wu Yize on Monday won the World Snooker Championship for the first time with a dramatic 18-17 victory over Shaun Murphy in the final. Wu held his nerve to seal his thrilling triumph in a tense last frame shoot-out at Sheffield’s Crucible Theatre. The 22-year-old is the second Chinese player to win the world title after Zhao Xintong beat Mark Williams to make history as the first Asian to lift the trophy last year. Wu is also the second-youngest player to be crowned world champion at the Crucible after Stephen Hendry, who was 21 when he won in 1990. “I have been trying
Real Madrid announced on Friday they had fined Aurelien Tchouameni and Federico Valverde 500,000 euros (US$588,000) each after a training ground clash that saw Valverde transported for medical care. The club did not impose any sporting sanctions on the two players, saying in a statement that the fine “thereby concludes the internal procedures” launched against them. Valverde is going to miss today’s Clasico against Barcelona as a result of the head injury he suffered during the altercation. The club said he would be out for up to two weeks. Tchouameni took part in training on Friday and could feature at Camp
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