From Königssee, GER
Until this season, no Korean had ever won a gold medal in World Cup bobsled or skeleton. Not only did Yunjong Won break that streak, he also took the World Cup overall title with it.
Won came into the final heat of the two-man season just .02 ahead of Beat Hefti. Hefti out-pushed Won by .02, leaving the gold medal entirely up to the drive. Won looked to struggle mid-track, but found speed at the bottom to take the gold medal, and with it the overall World Cup title. Hefti took second by .05.
Francesco Friedrich was the top-scoring German, taking bronze after coming into the final heat fourth, but moved up to third after neither Rico Peter or Nico Walther could keep pace. Peter finished fourth, Oskars Melbardis fifth and Walther sixth.
Won takes the overall World Cup title, ahead of Walther, Ugis Zalims, Peter, Melbardis and Friedrich. The latter two both struggled with injuries throughout the season.
Justin Kripps was the only North American in the top ten, with a tie for seventh with Latvian Ugis Zalims. Teammate Chris Spring struggled, falling from 17th after the first run to 19th in the second. Meanwhile, Steven Holcomb finished 11th as the top-scoring American. Teammate Nick Cunningham moved up from 16th to finish 14th in the second run.
Bradley Hall finished 13th for Great Britain after two good trips down in the same sled that Bruce Tasker drove in World Championships. Tasker didn’t fair as well, finishing 23rd.
Results:
Pos | Names | Nation | Bib | Run 1 | Run 2 | Total |
1 | Won / Seo | KOR | 4 | 49.59 | 49.91 | 1:39.50 |
2 | Hefti / Baumann | SUI | 11 | 49.61 | 49.94 | 1:39.55 |
3 | Friedrich / Bauer | GER | 8 | 49.70 | 49.95 | 1:39.65 |
4 | Peter / van der Zijde | SUI | 2 | 49.68 | 50.01 | 1:39.69 |
5 | Melbardis / Dreiskens | LAT | 9 | 49.78 | 49.93 | 1:39.71 |
6 | Walther / Poser | GER | 3 | 49.70 | 50.04 | 1:39.74 |
7 | Kripps / Kopacz | CAN | 10 | 49.91 | 49.87 | 1:39.78 |
7 | Zalims / Dambis | LAT | 1 | 49.84 | 49.94 | 1:39.78 |
9 | Lochner / Bluhm | GER | 12 | 49.77 | 50.03 | 1:39.80 |
10 | Stulnev / Belugin | RUS | 15 | 49.77 | 50.06 | 1:39.83 |
11 | Holcomb / Valdes | USA | 5 | 50.00 | 50.03 | 1:40.03 |
12 | Kasjanov / Pushkarev | RUS | 7 | 50.03 | 50.08 | 1:40.11 |
13 | Hall / Baines | GBR | 21 | 50.04 | 50.20 | 1:40.24 |
14 | Cunningham / Michener | USA | 13 | 50.12 | 50.30 | 1:40.42 |
15 | Bertazzo / Fontana | ITA | 17 | 50.24 | 50.23 | 1:40.47 |
16 | Kibermanis / Miknis | LAT | 14 | 50.26 | 50.23 | 1:40.49 |
17 | Maier / Moldovan | AUT | 20 | 50.07 | 50.44 | 1:40.51 |
18 | Kim / Kim | KOR | 16 | 50.03 | 50.50 | 1:40.53 |
19 | Spring / Giguere | CAN | 6 | 50.20 | 50.35 | 1:40.55 |
20 | Dvorak / Suchy | CZE | 22 | 50.48 | 50.61 | 1:41.09 |
21 | de Bruin / van der Geest | NED | 18 | 50.50 | ||
22 | Kolb / Esterhammer | AUT | 24 | 50.70 | ||
23 | Tasker / Simons | GBR | 19 | 50.91 | ||
24 | Radenovic / Vujanic | SRB | 23 | 51.88 |