The Isle of Wight’s Kimberley Murray has taken her first gold in the sport of Skeleton whilst competing in the IBSF Europe Cup in Winterberg, Germany.
Kim, from Ryde, took her inaugural win earlier today (Saturday) to beat Janine Becker from Germany and fellow teammate Madelaine Smith.
In Skeleton every twist and turn needs to be precise to save literally milliseconds. Over 2 runs Murray took the win over Germany’s Becker by just 0.09 seconds. Kim’s winning individual run time was an impressive 0:57.62.
Kim is now sitting second in the Europe Cup standings following a 4th place and 2nd place in Innsbruck and now a 1st place in Winterberg.
It was 3 years ago that Island Echo first reported on the Islander’s dream of gold glory at the Beijing Winter Olympics in 2022. Kim is a former long jumper and won gold for the Isle of Wight at the 2007 NatWest Island Games in Rhodes. Her jump that day (5.95m) still stands as the Games Record, but injury has forced a change in sport.
Kim joined the British Skeleton talent squad in December 2014 through the Power2Podium programme. Now, following years of hard work and fundraising, the 30-year-old is busy preparing for her World Cup debut and continuing on the road to Beijing.
It will no doubt be celebrations all round tonight but Kimberley’s focus will be turning to the World Cup event in Sigulda, Latvia from 3rd December.
