Two bad bends cost Great Britain's men's skeleton stars Olympic medals to match Shelley Rudman's silver in a disappointing end to an exciting night at Cesana Pariol.

While his girlfriend was in the centre of Turin preparing to pick up the medal she earned in the women's competition on Thursday, Kristan Bromley agonisingly blew third place after the first run to trail in fifth.

And number two Adam Pengilly also admitted he missed his big chance after swapping fourth place just 0.2 seconds behind Bromley on the first run for a lowly finishing position of eighth.

The pair blamed mistakes on bends 14 and five respectively for costing them their chances of Olympic medals, allowing Gregor Staehli to nip in for bronze behind Canadians Duff Gibson and Jeff Pain.

Bromley said: "My mistake on curve 14 probably cost me a medal but it was the right decision to go for it. I gave absolutely everything and was fifth, which I am pleased about but gutted I missed a medal."

The 33-year-old Lancastrian was leading on split times all the way down the track until his mistake and ended up missing out on the bronze medal time by just over one quarter of a second.

Bromley, a design engineer who has devoted much of his professional life to the pursuit of British skeleton success, said he took heart from the overall team performance, in particular from Rudman.

Bromley said: "Shelley's performance was amazing, I was here yesterday and emotions were high and it was difficult to come away from that and control ourselves to be honest.

"Alex Coomber put skeleton on the map in Salt Lake City and now Shelley has done it again and we have proved that we are a nation that can give consistent performances at the top level."

And Bromley insisted he had no intentions of giving up the racing role he entered reluctantly in the first place in order to devote more time to the technical side.

He added: "When I retire we will continue building sleds but I will only retire when the book is finished, and at the minute I am as up for it as anything."

The 28-year-old Pengilly had surged into surprise medal contention following his third place in the sixth and final training session and made a superb start on the first run.

But despite his impressive finishing position of eighth the Taunton man found it hard to disguise his disappointment at coming so close to realising his Olympic dream.

Pengilly said: "I'm gutted to be honest because I had a solid first run and I got the opportunity but I didn't take it.

"I should have done better and I am thoroughly annoyed with myself. I got curve five wrong and you've got to put two runs together - I didn't and the winners did."

But Pengilly - who was in Salt Lake four years ago as an assistant coach to the women's bobsleigh squad, said he would be back to pursue his long-term goal in four years' time.

He added: "I only started four years ago and the whole aim was to win a medal in Vancouver. I am a bit ahead of schedule on that but it was an opportunity today and I missed out on it."

Wicklow's David Connolly said he was satisfied with 20th place in his first Games following the fourth place achieved by fellow Irishman Clifton Wrottesley four years ago.

Connolly said: "It's all part of the learning experience and it's pretty unheard of turning up at your first Games and winning.

"Most guys here have been sliding two years more than me so give me a couple more years and I'll be a lot closer to them. We are trying to build on this and take it further."