Dom Parsons admitted he could be pleased with his progress as he came out quickest among the men’s team at British Skeleton’s World Cup squad selection races in Winterberg, Germany.
Parsons finished tenth in the skeleton at the Winter Olympics in Sochi earlier this year and has been stepping up his preparations for the new season in recent weeks.
Part of that has included adjusting to a new sled and the 27-year-old was able to test it out during intense training in Germany last week.
He comfortably topped the men’s timings, recording an overall time of 3:50.84 from his four runs with David Swift and Ed Smith battling it out behind him, with the former gaining the edge by 0.02 seconds.
The World Cup season gets underway on December 8 in Lake Placid and Parsons admitted the selection races had been a valuable experience for the campaign ahead.
“It’s finished better than it started. I’ve still been trying to get used to my new sled this season, so it kind of felt like going to a new track even though I’ve been here before,” he said.
“It was a bit difficult having the training condensed into two days rather than three [beacuse of the weather conditions], as that meant there wasn’t as much analysis time in between races to pick things up.
“I wasn’t really sure how it would go in the race, but I’m quite pleased that things went ok.”
Laura Deas led the way in the race for the women’s spots after recording a combined time of 3:56.87 from her four runs, 0.40 ahead of Rose McGrandle.
Olympic champion Lizzy Yarnold has already been pre-selected for one of the three women’s spots in the team although she still posted an impressive overall time of 3:55.64 from her test runs as she stepped up her preparations for the season.
Decisions on the World Cup squads will be finalised pending a meeting of the selection committee.
© Sportsbeat 2014