Matt Weston underlined his status as the world’s best skeleton pilot by setting the track record on his way to taking a significant halfway lead at the Winter Olympics.
The two-time world champion – Team GB’s biggest medal hope in Milan-Cortina -put down a statement second run to open an advantage of 0.30 seconds over the field, with two medal-deciding runs to come on Friday.
Weston was the only slider under 56 seconds as he clocked 55.88secs in heat two, to add to his 56.21secs in run one on the new Cortina sliding track.
After a frustrating opening run, which began with a costly bump against the wall near the top of the track, Weston was clearly disgruntled with his performance.
But, under pressure from two German sliders, he tidied up those errors with a slick and highly impressive second run, shaving 0.33secs off his opening effort, to give him an overall time of one minute 52.09secs.
“I was quite annoyed after the first run. I tried to be a bit too relaxed because I tried to over-compensate for race-day nerves,” Weston said.
“It’s pretty crazy [to be the overnight leader] but I take every run as run one. I will completely reset myself, switch off for a bit and then re-focus on Friday.”
Given skeleton medals are often decided by hundredths of a second, Weston’s fist pumps at the end of his second run were not only a sign of his elation at a cleaner run, but also marking the significance of his advantage.
Compatriot Marcus Wyatt sits seventh with a combined time of 1:53.21 – 0.66secs outside of the medal places.
Wyatt, 34, was also a strong medal contender coming into the Games but has struggled on the technical Cortina track and a podium-finish already seems like a tough ask.
Axel Jungk, silver medallist in Beijing four years ago, is in second place with a time of 1:52.39 while fellow German and defending Olympic champion Christopher Grotheer is third with 1:52.55.
The final two heats will take be shown live on the BBC from 18:30 GMT on Friday with all four run times added together to give an overall result.