From Innsbruck, AUT
(Nov. 19, 2017) As with most forms of racing, in luge sometimes the fastest slider doesn’t always win. Consistency can be key in races where nobody seems to be able to put down two quick runs. In the FIL World Cup men’s opener, the results showed just that.
Italian Dominik Fischnaller led Germans Andi Langenhan and Julian von Schleinitz going into the second heat of men’s luge, yet none of them scored a medal.
Throughout the race competitors struggled to put down two consistent runs with athletes like Johannes Ludwig, who was the slowest in the first run but fastest in the second run. In that same spirit, von Schleinitz had trouble early in his second run and dropped out of the top 20, Langenhan made a costly mistake halfway down his run to fall to eighth, and Fischnaller had trouble at the start and couldn’t recover, finishing sixth.
Other traditional contenders with major trouble on a run were Roman Repilov, who had a disaster at the start to finish his first heat in 28th, only to slide to a third fastest run in Run 2. Nico Gleirscher also had trouble on his home ice, unable to recover in the first heat from trouble at the start, he clocked fourth fastest in the second run to move up into the top 10.
All of that carnage opened the for Semen Pavlichenko, who came into the second heat in fifth place. His second run was second-quickest, which was plenty fast enough to beat out Austrian Wolfgang Kindl on Kindl’s home ice to take gold. German Felix Loch took third in a race where neither Kindl nor Loch had a top-three fastest run of the race.
Stepan Fedorov of Russia held on to his position after the first heat to finish fourth, while Ralf Palik strung together two eight-quickest runs to finish fifth. Fischnaller finished sixth.
The United States continued to have trouble in Austria, with Tucker West leading the way in 16th place. West had the fifth quickest start but struggled down the Innsbruck track in his first run to finish 24th. His second run was much better, but a mistake at the bottom of his run dropped him to 11th fastest of the run and 16th overall. Chris Mazdzer finished 20th, Jonathan Gustafson 28th, and Taylor Morris 30th to round out the American effort.
Mitchel Malyk finished 29th, and Samuel Edney 31st for Canada.
Results:
Pos Name Nation Bib Start 1 Start 2 Run 1 Run 2 Total
1 Semen Pavlichenko RUS 23 5.407 5.396 50.949 50.822 1:41.771
2 Wolfgang Kindl AUT 27 5.462 5.454 50.953 50.874 1:41.827
3 Felix Loch GER 29 5.425 5.396 50.979 50.862 1:41.841
4 Stepan Fedorov RUS 17 5.391 5.396 50.942 50.923 1:41.865
5 Ralf Palik GER 7 5.404 5.413 50.998 50.895 1:41.893
6 Dominik Fischnaller ITA 32 5.413 5.425 50.868 51.047 1:41.915
7 Kristers Aparjods LAT 18 5.456 5.414 51.107 50.869 1:41.976
8 Kevin Fischnaller ITA 15 5.420 5.425 51.076 50.975 1:42.051
9 Andi Langenhan GER 31 5.392 5.386 50.890 51.183 1:42.073
10 Nico Gleirscher AUT 16 5.426 5.410 51.261 50.836 1:42.097
11 Alexander Stepichev RUS 5 5.413 5.443 51.000 51.100 1:42.100
12 Reinhard Egger AUT 22 5.440 5.420 51.088 51.092 1:42.180
13 Roman Repilov RUS 26 5.587 5.387 51.364 50.824 1:42.188
14 Inars Kivlenieks LAT 30 5.410 5.399 51.099 51.094 1:42.193
15 Alexander Ferlazzo AUS 8 5.413 5.417 51.105 51.114 1:42.249
16 Tucker West USA 19 5.397 5.358 51.310 50.943 1:42.253
17 Armin Frauscher AUT 21 5.395 5.399 51.343 50.921 1:42.264
18 Theo Gruber ITA 11 5.562 5.482 51.194 51.088 1:42.282
19 Johannes Ludwig GER 28 5.405 5.380 51.675 50.634 1:42.292
20 Chris Mazdzer USA 20 5.405 5.390 51.209 51.088 1:42.297
21 Emanuel Rieder ITA 14 5.436 5.432 51.328 50.985 1:42.313
22 Julian von Schleinitz GER 9 5.421 5.433 50.940 51.421 1:42.361
23 Riks Rozitis LAT 1 5.502 5.492 51.030 51.336 1:42.336
24 Jozef Ninis SVK 4 5.467 5.465 51.185 51.262 1:42.447
25 David Gleirscher AUT 13 5.418 5.419 51.284 51.196 1:42.480
26 Valentin Cretu ROU 12 5.515 5.443 51.314 51.174 1:42.488
27 Aleksandr Gorbatcevich RUS 25 5.446 5.442 51.257 51.241 1:42.498
28 Jonathan Eric Gustafson USA 10 5.389 5.430 51.018 51.522 1:42.540
29 Mitchel Malyk CAN 6 5.454 5.449 51.399 51.317 1:42.716
30 Taylor Morris USA 2 5.489 5.507 51.279 51.457 1:42.736
31 Samuel Edney CAN 24 5.467 5.462 51.470 51.445 1:42.915
32 Maciej Kurowski POL 3 5.492 5.508 51.400 51.531 1:42.931
