Races number five and six of the Omega Youth Monobob and Skeleton Series have taken place in Lake Placid ©Kim McGuire/IBSF

Races number five and six of the Omega Youth Monobob and Skeleton Series have taken place in Lake Placid, bringing qualifying for next year's Winter Youth Olympic Games (YOG) in Lausanne into its second-half.

A total of 26 athletes from 11 nations competed in the village in New York State's Adirondack Mountains.

In skeleton, China's Dan Zhao won both women's races ahead of Canada's Hallie Clarke.

Ukraine's Lansiia Dmytriieva and Brazil's Larissa Brito Candido finished third, respectively.

Home favourite James McGuire celebrated two victories in the men's races.

Japan's Taido Nagao, in second place, first relegated Canada’s Ryan Kuehn and then his team mate Takanobu Usui to third.

Slovakia’s Viktoria Cernanska took the women's lead in the monobob with her third and fourth wins in the series.

The United States' Maddy Cohen finished second ahead of Chinese Taipei's Lin Yu-Hsin and South Korea's Joo Hyeongwon, respectively.

Slovakia’s Viktoria Cernanska topped the women's monobob standings ©Kim McGuire/IBSF
Slovakia’s Viktoria Cernanska topped the women's monobob standings ©Kim McGuire/IBSF

South Korea's Kim Jimin was a two-time winner in the men's races.

He condemned Croatia's Toni Nimac and Brazil's Gustavo dos Santos Ferreira to second and third place respectively.

The Omega Youth Monobob and Skeleton Series includes eight races on four different tracks.

Races have already taken place in Norwegian town Lillehammer and Königssee in Germany.

The last two are due to take place in Park City on December 7 and 8.

The four best results achieved by athletes from the eight races will form the International Bobsleigh and Skeleton Federation youth ranking list.

The YOG quota spots per nation are determined from this.

At Lausanne 2020, scheduled to be held from January 9 to 22, a total of 40 skeleton and 36 monobob athletes will compete, with gender equality in both sports.