DANNY Holdcroft will have had worse 48 hours.

‘Ridiculous’ was how the Head of Performance for GB’s skeleton programme, who lives in Bratton, described the weekend which saw three British athletes claim medals at the Winter Olympics in South Korea.

After Dom Parsons’ bronze medal in the men’s event on Friday, a day later reigning women’s champion Lizzy Yarnold defended her title while Laura Deas, based in Melksham, joined her on the podium with bronze - the first time Britain have won two medals in the same event at the Winter Olympics.

In keeping with the continued success of British skeleton athletes stretching back more than 15 years, Holdcroft was busy looking ahead to the Winter Olympics in Beijing in 2022 as the current cream of the crop were doing the business in South Korea, taking time out from a get-together in Bavaria to watch the action unfold.

“It was a ridiculous weekend - quite amazing,’’ said Holdcroft, who is based with the skeleton programme at the University of Bath.

“There are not many words that can explain how I felt at the time and it’s still kind of sinking in, the level we achieved. I’m super excited. We’re immensely proud.’’ Yarnold memorably retaining the title she won in Sochi inevitably garnered most of the headlines, but Holdcroft also paid tribute to the dedication of Melksham-based Deas.

“Laura started at the same time as Lizzy and her journey has been a little bit different,’’ he added.

“Lizzy accelerated into the high end quicker while Laura has seen nice, steady trajectory for the last six or seven years now.

“She tasted success at the World Cup and that put her in the top five or six (in the world) mix and ever since then she’s been consistent.

“The way our sport works is if you can achieve a level of consistency and you’re in around the top six, when you come to the Games you will have a great chance.

“That’s exactly what she did. All her hard work and dedication paid off and she delivered four high-quality runs on the money.’’ l More from Holdcroft on the British Skeleton programme in next week’s Wiltshire Times