From Königssee, GER
(Jan. 19, 2018) It can be argued that no one on the IBSF World Cup tour has come so close to a gold medal without winning one than Axel Jungk. The German came into Königssee with 22 top-sixes in his 31 World Cup starts, having not once ever finished outside of the top nine.
That all changed in Königssee.
Jungk came into his second run tied with Martins Dukurs for the lead, once again on the verge of winning his first IBSF World Cup gold medal. Dukurs put the pressure on Jungk, throwing down a race-fastest run with just Jungk to come.
On Jungk’s run he looked to be falling back, dropping to second at the penultimate timing line. Somewhere, though, he found speed at the bottom of his run, slipping past Dukurs by .02 to win his first gold medal.
Martins Dukurs finished second, while teammate and brother Tomass Dukurs finished third.
Rounding out the top six were Nikita Tregubov of Russia, and Germans Christopher Grotheer and Alexander Gassner.
Matt Antoine and John Daly both finished in the top ten for the United States, with Antoine one spot ahead of Daly in ninth. Teammate Greg West just missed the second run in 21st.
For the Canadians, it was a tough second run across the board. Kevin Boyer moved up from 14th to 13th on his second run, while Barrett Martineau fell from 13th to 16th, and Dave Greszczyszyn from 15th to 18th.
On the flip side, a significantly better run in the second heat moved Dom Parsons from 18th to 11th on his second run. He leapfrogged Marcus Wyatt, who also moved up from 17th to 12th. Jerry Rice rounded out the British effort in 14th, up from 20th.
The overall World Cup points championship went to Sungbin Yun of Korea. Yun, who sat out the final race to practice in Korea for the Olympics, hadn’t finished off the podium all season. His five gold medals and two silvers were well ahead of anyone else on tour this season.
Jungk finished second overall, with Tomass Dukurs fishing just ahead of brother Martins in third.
Results:
| Pos | Name | Nation | Bib | Start 1 | Start 2 | Run 1 | Run 2 | Total |
| 1 | Axel Jungk | GER | 11 | 4.63 | 4.57 | 51.05 | 50.56 | 1:41.61 |
| 2 | Martins Dukurs | LAT | 12 | 4.62 | 4.62 | 51.05 | 50.58 | 1:41.63 |
| 3 | Tomass Dukurs | LAT | 9 | 4.71 | 4.71 | 51.17 | 50.67 | 1:41.84 |
| 4 | Nikita Tregubov | RUS | 6 | 4.66 | 4.65 | 51.17 | 50.69 | 1:41.86 |
| 5 | Christopher Grotheer | GER | 13 | 4.69 | 4.69 | 51.18 | 50.93 | 1:42.11 |
| 6 | Alexander Gassner | GER | 8 | 4.72 | 4.71 | 51.25 | 50.95 | 1:42.20 |
| 7 | Alexander Tretiakov | RUS | 15 | 4.57 | 4.54 | 51.27 | 50.95 | 1:42.22 |
| 8 | Matthias Guggenberger | AUT | 7 | 4.73 | 4.70 | 51.72 | 51.19 | 1:42.91 |
| 9 | Matthew Antoine | USA | 14 | 4.74 | 4.69 | 51.74 | 51.22 | 1:42.96 |
| 10 | John Daly | USA | 18 | 4.74 | 4.72 | 51.69 | 51.31 | 1:43.00 |
| 11 | Dominic Parsons | GBR | 16 | 4.74 | 4.71 | 51.95 | 51.13 | 1:43.08 |
| 12 | Marcus Wyatt | GBR | 21 | 4.67 | 4.67 | 51.94 | 51.29 | 1:43.23 |
| 13 | Kevin Boyer | CAN | 19 | 4.64 | 4.65 | 51.89 | 51.44 | 1:43.33 |
| 14 | Jeremy Rice | GBR | 23 | 4.77 | 4.68 | 52.06 | 51.31 | 1:43.37 |
| 15 | Vladyslav Heraskevych | UKR | 5 | 4.93 | 4.96 | 51.91 | 51.55 | 1:43.46 |
| 16 | Barrett Martineau | CAN | 22 | 4.77 | 4.78 | 51.88 | 51.76 | 1:43.64 |
| 17 | Vladislav Marchenkov | RUS | 17 | 4.82 | 4.75 | 51.81 | 51.86 | 1:43.67 |
| 18 | Dave Greszczyszyn | CAN | 10 | 4.80 | 4.77 | 51.91 | 52.05 | 1:43.96 |
| 19 | Alexander Auer | AUT | 4 | 4.75 | 4.74 | 52.02 | 51.95 | 1:43.97 |
| 20 | Alex Hanssen | NOR | 27 | 4.62 | 4.64 | 51.78 | 53.14 | 1:44.92 |
| 21 | Greg West | USA | 24 | 4.80 | 52.14 | |||
| 22 | Hiroatsu Takahashi | JPN | 25 | 4.74 | 52.24 | |||
| 23 | Ronald Auderset | SUI | 1 | 4.64 | 52.35 | |||
| 24 | Rhys Thornbury | NZL | 20 | 4.75 | 52.41 | |||
| 25 | Riet Graf | SUI | 26 | 4.85 | 52.42 | |||
| 26 | Florian Auer | AUT | 2 | 4.86 | 53.10 | |||
| 27 | Wengang Yan | CHN | 3 | 4.76 | 53.15 |
