Winter Olympics: Super Saturday for Team GB with three medals

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Tom Doyle17 February 2018

Lizzy Yarnold, Laura Deas and Izzy Atkin ensured Great Britain enjoyed an historic 'Super Saturday' by claiming three medals at the Winter Olympics.

Yarnold overcame dizzy spells to win a second successive women's skeleton gold medal and become the first Briton to defend a Winter Olympics title.

The 29-year-old Sochi 2014 champion trailed leader Janine Flock of Austria entering the fourth and final run, where she overhauled the deficit to win by 0.45 seconds.

British team-mate Laura Deas claimed bronze by 0.02secs as Britain won two medals in the same event for the first time in Winter Olympics history, with Izzy Atkin's skiing bronze capping a superb day for Team GB.

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Great Britain have now equalled their record Winter Games medal tally of four, and it is the first time they have ever won three Winter Olympic medals in the same day - overtaking the record two from Chamonix in 1924.

Yarnold is now Britain's most decorated Winter Olympian: only figure skaters Jeannette Altwegg and pair Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean, who have one gold medal and one bronze each, also have multiple medals for Britain.

And now Yarnold is in an exclusive club all of her own.

Yarnold trailed by 0.10 overnight after complaining of being dizzy, but cut the deficit as overnight leader Jacqueline Loelling of Germany slipped back to third place after the third run.

The Briton trailed Flock by 0.02 ahead of the fourth and final run, meaning Yarnold was the penultimate slider to take to the track and had to watch her rival's run.

Yarnold clocked a track record of 51.46 to lead by a commanding fashion and Flock floundered, relinquishing her spot on the podium to spark jubilant celebrations among a sizeable British contingent at the Olympic Sliding Centre.

Atkin, meanwhile, is the "dark horse" who won Britain's first Winter Olympics skiing medal in the with ski slopestyle bronze.

The 19-year-old, the youngest member of the British team, retained her composure to soar to third place at Phoenix Snow Park.

She scored 84.60 with her final run to claim Britain's second bronze, after Dom Parsons' men's skeleton third place on Friday.

Switzerland's Sarah Hoefflin, who spent part of her youth in Tewkesbury, Gloucestershire, and went to university in Cardiff, won with 91.20 ahead of her team-mate Mathilde Gremaud.

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"I still can't believe it. I'm really overwhelmed. I'm just really happy," Atkin said.

"I'm really proud of how I skied in that last run. I would have been stoked with anything but I am really happy with third."

Additional reporting by the Press Association.

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