Olympic champion Christopher Grotheer and Tina Hermann bag gold in skeleton World Cup openers in Yanqing

German sliders took top honours in the opening World Cup of the skeleton season in Yanqing.

Christopher Grotheer climbed from second to first to claim the men’s skeleton gold while Tina Hermann’s consistency saw her win the women’s race.

On his return to the scene of his 2022 Olympic triumph, Grotheer experienced more success in Beijing but was behind Yan Wengang of China after the first run.

Olympic bronze medallist Yan held a 0.10-second lead but a slow start second time around pushed him back to third, which still marked a first World Cup podium.

Yan was leapfrogged by both Grotheer, who produced the fastest time of the day with a second run of 1:00.39, and Chen Wenhao who beat his compatriot to silver by 0.05 seconds.

World champion Matt Weston of Great Britain dropped from fourth to 10th after a mistake at turn two on his second run, while fellow Brit Jacob Salisbury was the best-placed debutant as he came home in 12th.

In the women’s event, Hermann beat out home favourite Zhao Dan by just 0.02 seconds as the Chinese slider saw a 0.12-second lead slip away on the final run.

Hermann, the reigning overall World Cup champion, had the 13th and 14th worst starts on each run but recovered to post the second-fastest time on both occasions.

Zhao was still able to celebrate a first World Cup podium as Mirela Rahneva of Canada claimed bronze.

The World Cup next heads to La Plagne in France on 8 December.