The race on Friday was close for the Tyrolean skeleton pilot Janine Flock – she was fourth at the home World Cup in Innsbruck-Igls, the Rumerin was only 0.02 seconds off the podium.
INNSBRUCK IGLS. With fourth place on Friday at the home World Cup, Tyrolean Janine Flock shows that she still belongs to the skeleton elite. Victory went to Kimberley Bos from the Netherlands, who set a track record of 52.87 seconds in the second run and fought her way up from eleventh place following a tough race to catch up. Second was Hallie Clarke from the USA (+0.28), third was Kim Meylemans from Belgium (+0.33). Flock was just 0.02 seconds off the podium. “Respect for this track record!” Janine Flock verbally took off her hat in front of the overall World Cup title defender at the finish. “I’m happy to take this fourth place with me. Of course, the two hundredths hurt, but before the season I would never have thought that I would be able to compete at the front once more so quickly following my disc surgery.”
Maybe the woman from Rum might have done better if she hadn’t suffered a painful injury to her left ankle in the much too short outrun of the time-honoured Olympic ice track in the first run. “I have yet to watch the video but I must have banged my ankle on the sled or the rails when I crashed into the mats. Before the second run, I wasn’t able to do my warm-up exercises as usual and had to clench my teeth during the run-up. The start time was actually quite good for that,” said Flock.
Sigulda in focus
Next, the Tyrolean already has her sights set on the season finale in Sigulda, Latvia: “Maybe I’ll have a hundredth of a second luck on my side there once more.” On Friday, the 33-year-old army athlete will be heading to the airport together with her Austrian teammates Samuel Maier and Florian Auer Munich: “We fly on Saturday and can already complete the first training session on Sunday in Latvia.”
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Flock just barely missed the podium