LAURA Deas put herself firmly in the mix for a medal in the Olympic women's skeleton event in Pyongchang as she lay fourth at the midway point of the competition today.

The Melksham slider produced a fine second run to nudge herself up the standings after a couple of errors on the opening slide had left her down in sixth place.

Deas, 29, clocked 52 seconds exactly in her first outing and although she was marginally slower in the second, with 52.03, that was still one of the outstanding runs of the second round as several rivals faltered.

British teammate and defending Olympic champion Lizzy Yarnold faces a battle to retain her crown tomorrow after falling 0.10 behind leader Jacqueline Loelling of Germany after the first two runs.

Yarnold led after the first run but a mistake midway down her second shunted her back to third, with Deas a further seventh hundredths of a second behind and just 17 hundredths of a second separating the top four.

Deas told the BBC: "I am really pleased. In the first run I wanted to shake out the nerves as it has been a day and a half since I was on the track.

"I just wanted to relax and work on some things in the second run and I made a few improvements on the second and I am very happy.

"It is a tough track and it rewards a fast push. There is nowhere to let your brain rest.

"It is a nice place to be sitting in fourth, seven hundredth of a second out of a medal. It is a sport where anything can happen. I just want to stay positive and find those hundredths tomorrow."

The third and fourth runs take place late tomorrow morning British time.

FIND OUT HOW LAURA DEAS GOES IN HER FINAL TWO OLYMPIC RUNS TOMORROW AT WILTSHIRETIMES.CO.UK/SPORT