Lake Placid hosted two events last weekend; the Lake Placid Ice Marathon on the Olympic Speed Skating Oval and the FIBT Skeleton/Bobsled World Cup at the Mt Van Hoevenburg track.

The Lake Placid Ice Marathon, one of the races in the Marathon Skating International Series throughout North America, hosted approximately sixty skaters.

The race distances were 10 k, 25 k, and 40 k, (which equals approximately 25 laps, 60 laps, and 100 laps), and skaters from the US and Canada competed. The two fastest skaters, Sergio Almeralla (Canada) and Jim Cornell (Rochester, NY), dominated all three distances, with Almeralla placing first and Cornell placing second.

Germany was dominating throughout the World Cup events and the first two days of the FIBT Skeleton Bobsled World Cup in Lake Placid, but the United States’ “Night Train” dashed that winning streak with a victory on the 19^th. Steve Holcomb led his team to win the event with a time of 1:48.01, which was .58 seconds faster than the next fastest sled.

The gold medal was their first since the first world cup of the season in Whistler, British Columbia. Coming in second was the Germany-1 team of Maximillian Arndt, Rene Tiefert, Alexander Roediger and Martin Putze with a runner-up time of 1:48.01 total. Canada-1 placed third with driver Lyndon Rush and his crew of Justin Wilkinson, Cody Sorensen and Neville Wright, with a solid 1:48.63 time.

Two other US sleds piloted by local athlete John Napier and rookie Ethan Albrecht-Carrie, finished 8^th and 10^th respectively. The FIBT Bobsled and Skeleton World Cup tour will resume Jan. 10-16 in Igls, Austria.

For complete Lake Placid Ice Marathon Results, visit http://www.mylaps.com/results/showevent.jsp?id=619644; and for more information about the US Bobsled and Skeleton World Cups, visit the USA Bobsled and Skeleton Federation home page at http://bobsled.teamusa.org/