Laura Deas seeking Olympic skeleton form at Altenberg World Championships
- Published
Laura Deas won bronze at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang
Laura Deas is seeking to put down an Winter Olympic marker at this week's Bobsleigh and Skeleton World Championships in Altenberg, Germany.
The 32-year-old from Wrexham won bronze at the 2018 Games in Pyeongchang.
Deas is now targeting another medal at Beijing 2022 next February.
"It has significance because it's the last four-heat Olympic format before the Games themselves, so it's a really good opportunity to test out that four-heat mentality," Deas said.
"Obviously it's been a really tricky year for everyone so the fact we're even having a World Champs is great, I'm really grateful for that.
"We've pretty much had a normal season and that's been very unusual."
The skeleton events at this year's World Championships take place over three days, with the first two heats of both the men's and women's races scheduled for Thursday and runs three and four set for Friday.
Saturday then sees the team event, where a male and female slider compete in one run each.
Deas has enjoyed her start to this World Cup season, laying some personal ghosts to rest and mixing competition with training on the track she will be competing on this week in Altenberg.
"I had a good start in Sigulda, it's a difficult track over in Latvia and it's a track I didn't have a very auspicious start on - crashed the first time I went there and then sat out the following two weeks - so I tried to take a fresh mentality to it," Deas told BBC Sport Wales.
"I had a really nice opening couple of weeks to the season with a fifth and a sixth there, took some time out from the World Cup after that to do some training on this World Champs track, and then returned after Christmas.
"My results weren't as sparkling as they were before Christmas but I was still fairly happy with where I was in terms of looking at the bigger picture."
Deas is part of a six-strong Great Britain squad for the World Championships, with 2016 Youth Olympic Champion Ashleigh Pittaway and Brogan Crowley joining her in the women's team.
Craig Thompson, Matt Weston and Marcus Wyatt form the men's team, with the trio all having enjoyed podium success on the World Cup circuit this season.