Support The Moscow Times!

Russian Treyakov Slides to Gold in Skeleton

Alexander Tretyakov won Russia its first ever Olympic gold in any sliding sport when he won the men's skeleton at the Sochi Olympics on Saturday.

Tretyakov won by 0.81 seconds, a large margin in skeleton, from Latvia's Martins Dukurs, who took silver for the second Olympics in a row. Tretyakov's gold is Russia's fourth of its home Olympics and the second of the day after a win for Viktor Ahn in short-track speedskating.

Matthew Antoine of the United States took the bronze, a full 2.16 seconds off Dukurs.

There was heartbreak for U.S. slider John Daly, who had been just four-hundredths of a second off Antoine before the final run. Daly's sled slipped out of its starting groove as he pushed it and he was lucky to hold on, but lost a large amount of time and dropped to 15th.

Lizzy Yarnold of Britain won the women's competition Friday, ahead of Noelle Pikus-Pace of the U.S. and Russia's Yelena Nikitina.

Read more