Rossendale's Kristan Bromley moved into medal contention with a strong second run in the men’s skeleton competition in Whistler to leave him five hundredths of a second off a podium place at the half-way stage.

Experienced Bromley, from Waterfoot, clawed back from a bad start which placed him seventh after run one to make up two positions into fifth, close behind the third-placed slider Alexander Tretyakov of Russia.

Now three-time Olympian Bromley hopes his top-level experience will help give him the edge over some of the leading athletes for whom these Vancouver Games represent their first taste of Olympic competition.

Bromley said: “On this track five hundredths of a second is absolutely nothing. People are dropping or improving two to three tenths per run so it will all be made on that final run tomorrow.

”It’s about focus and it really is a mental game. There’s some young sliders in front of me who are prone to making mistakes. When the pressure starts building I’m hoping to capitalise on that.”

Bromley’s slow start appeared to nudge him out of medal contention but few of his rivals could build on their second run. Tretyakov improved from eighth to third, behind leader Martins Dukurs of Latvia and home favourite Jon Montgomery.