Records Fall in Lake Placid, Müller Wins Gold

From Lake Placid, USA

Dec. 1, 2019 – In the FIL World Cup season opener, Jonas Müller had the standout performance on his home track in Austria. A week later, he once again found himself atop the podium, this time in Lake Placid.

After the first heat, Müller found himself in the midst of a tight battle for the lead. The Austrian sat third, only .17 behind leader Tucker West, with Roman Repilov in second between them. In the second heat Müller out-slid both West and Repilov on his way to his second gold medal in as many weeks, with West edging out Dominik Fischnaller for silver. Fischnaller finished third.

Repilov struggled on his second run and finished fourth, with Kristers Aparjods and Semen Pavlichenko tying for fifth.

The race was the fastest that Lake Placid has ever seen.

In the first run, Chris Mazdzer broke the track record held by Roman Repilov. His time of 50.634 stood for about 20 minutes until teammate Tucker West put down a 50.604 to take over both the lead and the record. By the end of the first heat the top nine had all broken the old record, with 16 of the 20 fastest runs ever on the Lake Placid track taking place in the first run.*

At the top of the track, Jonny Gustafson broke the start record, previously held by Semen Pavlichenko. That time held until Pavlichenko came back and took that time back with a 6.300

It was a very solid day on home ice for the Americans. Mazdzer came into the second heat in fourth place, but one skid through the track’s chicane dropped him to seventh, while Jonny Gustafson finished 15th, putting all three men in the Sprint World Cup event later int he afternoon.

Reid Watts finished 17th as the lone Canadian in the field.

* Statistic provided by the Associated Press’ Tim Reynolds

Results: