WINTER WRAP-UP: DOUBLE GOLD FOR BANKES AS HALL TAKES SILVER AGAIN

Charlotte Bankes made it a weekend to remember by recording two stunning snowboard cross World Cup gold medals in Krasnoyarsk.

The 2021 world champion stormed to victory on both Saturday and Sunday, on each occasion finishing ahead of France’s Chloe Trespeuch and Lindsey Jacobellis of the USA.

The impressive results in Russia strengthened her grip at the top of the overall World Cup

standings where she now leads Trespeuch by 99 points.

After climbing to the top of the podium on Sunday, Bankes has now won three times this season and is in red hot form ahead of the Winter Olympics in Beijing next month.

She said: “I feel so great. I had a better day than yesterday as well.

“I am a lot happier with my riding today and I managed to feel really good when entering into the big final. I also had some really good starts today, so I feel super happy.”

There was more success on the snowboard for the British contingent out in the USA as Katie Ormerod took fourth in the snowboard slopestyle on Mammoth Mountain.

The 24-year-old earned her best result of the season to move into the top ten in the World Cup standings as her score of 72.32 saw her finish behind home winner Jamie Anderson.

Elsewhere, Brad Hall scooped his fifth World Cup bobsleigh silver as the preparation for Beijing ramps up a notch.

Hall has finished second on five occasions across both the two-man and four-man disciplines this season, underlining his status as a serious medal contender in China next month.

This weekend in Winterberg, Hall took second in the four-man alongside his push crew of Nick Gleeson, Taylor Lawrence and Greg Cackett.

Hall was fourth after the first run, just 0.07s behind Johannes Lochner and Justin Kripps in joint-second, with all-conquering German Francesco Friedrich a further 0.2s ahead atop the leaderboard.

The British sled’s push-start time of 5.09s was the quickest of all 21 crews on the first run and the fourth-fastest start of 5.10s for the second run was barely any worse, as Hall converted that to a total time of 1:49.50 to top the leaderboard with three sleds to go.

The pressure told as both Kripps and Lochner failed to go faster and although Friedrich ultimately proved unbeatable once again, smashing Team Hall’s overall time by 0.42s to extend a four-man World Cup winning streak that began way back in February 2020, the Brits sealed a familiarly stunning silver.

“It was a great performance from the boys today: another silver medal to add to the tally,” said Lawrence, who made his World Cup debut in Winterberg just two years ago.

“It’s great to do it in Winterberg – it’s a track that we’re starting to enjoy.

“Having the first-ranked push means a lot to us, too. There’s nothing better as brakemen than when you come down the bottom of the track and you see that No.1 next to your name. It fuels you for those next pushes and those next runs.

“Hopefully, we can carry this momentum forward into St Moritz and then into the Olympic Games.”

London 2012 long jump champion Greg Rutherford made his debut in Lamin Deen’s crew and they finished 17th on the day, 2.14s behind Friedrich.

While in the two-woman event, Mica McNeill and Adele Nicoll finished 14th in a race won by Germany’s Laura Nolte.

Cornelius Kersten will become Team GB’s first long track speed skater in 30 years when he gets on the ice at the National Speed Skating Oval in Beijing.

And on Friday night, he secured fourth place in the 1000m at the ISU Speed Skating Long Track European Championships.

The result is a stunning return for Kersten ahead of the Games and is Britain’s best-ever performance in 130 years of the competition.