British pair triumph in mixed team skeleton event
Bankes and Nightingale win mixed snowboard cross
The Games organisers had only just given Matt Weston the box for the medal he won on Friday night. He had been keeping it stashed in a spare sock in his top drawer since the moment he took it off that evening. As soon as it is out, he has a second one to put back in its place.
The 28-year-old Weston became the first British athlete in history to win two medals at a single Winter Olympics, after he and his 25‑year‑old teammate Tabitha Stoecker won the inaugural Olympic mixed team skeleton race in a combined time of 1min 59.36sec, 0.17sec ahead of the German pair of Axel Jungk and Susanne Kreher.
The mixed team event is new for the Olympics. The fastest men and women from each country are paired together, and then race the track back-to-back for a combined time. The key difference from the regular race is that the mixed team event uses a reaction start in which the racers have to set off as soon as a light randomly turns off. There were two false starts among the 15 teams, but it did not make too much difference to Weston, who has dominated this field all week.
