Video: Elena Nikitina misses her skeleton sled and slides over 100 feet down ice track

Nikitina has a moment to forget when she was attempting to beat Lizzy Yarnold's record time

Elena Nikitina slides down the ice track after missing her skeleton sled (YouTube/@denkuzmin)

If your name is Elena Nikitina, you may want to close this page now. The Russian skeleton athlete endured a moment to forget earlier today while she was competing at the Skeleton World Championships.

Setting off on her run to try and beat the best time, set by Great Britain’s Winter Olympic gold medallist Lizzy Yarnold, Nikitina sprinted off the start-line before diving onto her sled to embark on the run.

However, much to her embarrassment, Nikitina missed the sled.

The 2013 European Champion, who also claimed bronze in Sochi last year, dived too far forward after her sled bounced off the ice and dug into the track as it came back down, and landed hard on the ice in front of her sled. Luckily, she landed with her arms outstretched in front of her that reduced some of the impact, and also meant she was able to avoid hitting her head on the ice walls.

Watch the video below...

After sliding for what feels like an eternity, Nikitina finally comes to a halt some way down the run in Winterberg, Germany, but thankfully she sits up immediately and escaped unhurt after the nasty-looking incident.

Meanwhile Yarnold finished day one on top of the leaderboard after she broke the Winterberg track record, with the 26-year-old clocking a time of 57.44 seconds to lead Canadian Elisabeth Vathje by 0.07s after two runs.