Sleleton. Mattia Gaspari improves one position and finishes fourteenth

Good performance for the rider from Cortina on the spectacular Olympic track

BEIJING. Mattia Gaspari recovers a position in the last two skeleton descents and archives his first Olympic experience with a decent 14th place.

The Beijing 2022 skeleton program concluded yesterday, with the third and fourth descents after two on Thursday. Two Italian athletes competing: in addition to the Ampezzano delle Fiamme Azzurre, the very young Piedmontese Amedeo Bagnis.

For the two Italian athletes the performances were in line with expectations: Bagnis confirmed in both the third and fourth run the eleventh position recorded in the first two, with a final gap of 3 ” 07, while Mattia Gaspari was good at recovering a position, finishing in fourteenth place, with a gap of 4 ” 02 from the top.

Yanqin’s gut saw a German double: the gold medal went to Christopher Grotheer who resisted with great certainty the return of his compatriot Axel Junkg, forced to settle for the silver medal with a delay of 66 cents.

The host, the surprise Wengang Yan, obtained a historic bronze at 76 cents, taking advantage of the undoubted advantage of knowing every inch of the track, tested for two years, while the opponents were able to try it only at the beginning of this season, for a couple of weeks. Out of the medals round the favorite for the final success and winner of the umpteenth World Cup, the Latvian Martins Dukurs, even 7th.

The women’s skeleton program included the first two descents for yesterday. Halfway through the race, the Australian Jaclyn Narracott is in the lead (second time in the first, third in the second downhill) who leads the Germans Hannah Neise and Tina Hermann. Valentina Margaglio, the only blue entered in the competition, finished the first two runs in 16th place at 1 ” 54 from the leader. Today the two final heats, starting at 13.20 Italian.