18 February 2023 , 08:23
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Matt Weston, Britain’s skeleton world champion, brought the curtain down on an astonishing season in Latvia with yet another World Cup gold medal.
The former rugby winger added a fifth World Cup win - his fourth in a row - to last month’s World Championship success in St Moritz.
His victory at Sigulda meant he matches double Olympic gold medalist Lizzy Yarnold’s British record of seven World Cup medals in one season.
It comes a year after Team GB’s sliders bombed at the Olympics in Beijing.
Laura Deas, Olympic bronze medallist in 2018, followed up by winning silver on the same track - her best World Cup result for eight years.
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Weston, 25, said: “I’m almost lost for words when I think back at how sliding was last year compared to this year and the big changes we’ve made.
Weston: “It’s given me even more motivation to hopefully go and do what we’ve been doing this year at the Olympics in Milan in 2026.” (MAYK WENDT/EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock)“It’s given me even more motivation to keep working hard and to keep pushing over the next few years to hopefully go and do what we’ve been doing this year at the Olympics in Milan in 2026.”
Team mate Marcus Wyatt finished second with Craig Thompson fourth as Britain narrowly missed a first ever clean sweep of a men’s World Cup race.
Deas was only 0.05secs off winning her second ever World Cup gold, pipped to top spot by overall World Cup winner Tina Hermann.
Laura Deas, pictured at last year's Olympics, finished her year on a high with silver in SiguldaShe said: "I'd have loved to have won but this is still a fantastic way to finish the season.. It's great to feel like I can be this competitive even when my runs aren't perfect. I haven't felt that way for a long time."