From Winterberg, GER
(November 27, 2022) – Germany’s Alexander Gassner won his second straight Intercontinental Cup gold medal in Winterberg after holding off Great Britain’s Craig Thompson in both heats.
Gassner edged out Thompson by .05 after the first heat, while Gassner’s teammates Lukas Nydegger and Felix Seibel were also in the hunt, both within .2 seconds.
On the second run Nydegger slid into the lead, .2 ahead of Seibel with only Thompson and Gassner to go. Thompson threw down a strong second run on the strength of the second quickest start of the heat, which moved him into the lead.
That left Gassner between Thompson and gold. Gassner’s start was .13 off of Thompson’s, leaving the German behind the Brit off the top. Gassner rallied back, and had the best slide of the race to take the top spot on the podium.
The gold was the second straight for Gassner, while the silver for Thompson was his second straight medal. He’d won bronze the previous day.
Nydegger finished third, and Seibel fourth to give Germany three of the four top spots, while Great Britain’s Jacob Salisbury helped put both British sleds in the top five.
Great Britain’s sliders also had the top four starts across the two heats, with Salisbury setting the quick time in both heats.
Liechtenstein’s Jean Jacques Buff continued his outstanding start to the season with a sixth place finish.
Rasmus Johansen had the fifth quickest slide in the second heat to finish tied for seventh, out of the top six by .21.
The United States’ Daniel Barefoot finished tied for ninth with China’s Haifeng Zhu, while teammate Hunter Williams finished 18th.
Canada’s Mark Lynch finished 13th, while Italy’s Amedeo Bagnis popped the groove on his second run to fall from seventh to 16th.
Results:
| Pos | Names | Nation | Bib | Start 1 | Start 2 | Run 1 | Run 2 | Finish |
| 1 | Alexander Gassner | GER | 8 | 5.06 | 5.02 | 56.16 | 55.99 | 1:52.15 |
| 2 | Craig Thompson | GBR | 10 | 4.92 | 4.89 | 56.21 | 56.17 | 1:52.38 |
| 3 | Lukas David Nydegger | GER | 22 | 5.12 | 5.11 | 56.30 | 56.20 | 1:52.50 |
| 4 | Felix Seibel | GER | 11 | 5.15 | 5.09 | 56.35 | 56.35 | 1:52.70 |
| 5 | Jacob Salisbury | GBR | 7 | 4.90 | 4.87 | 56.41 | 56.47 | 1:52.88 |
| 6 | Jean Jacques Buff | LIE | 14 | 5.26 | 5.23 | 56.53 | 56.52 | 1:53.05 |
| 7 | Basil Sieber | SUI | 12 | 5.18 | 5.11 | 56.80 | 56.46 | 1:53.26 |
| 7 | Rasmus Johansen | DEN | 9 | 5.07 | 5.05 | 56.84 | 56.42 | 1:53.26 |
| 9 | Haifeng Zhu | CHN | 6 | 5.01 | 4.95 | 56.70 | 57.06 | 1:53.76 |
| 9 | Daniel Barefoot | USA | 13 | 5.06 | 5.03 | 56.95 | 56.81 | 1:53.76 |
| 11 | Livio Summermatter | SUI | 4 | 4.97 | 4.98 | 56.82 | 57.04 | 1:53.86 |
| 11 | Samuel Maier | AUT | 5 | 5.14 | 5.15 | 56.83 | 57.03 | 1:53.86 |
| 13 | Mark Lynch | CAN | 23 | 5.16 | 5.12 | 57.12 | 57.12 | 1:54.24 |
| 14 | Lucas Defayet | FRA | 15 | 5.22 | 5.17 | 57.43 | 57.09 | 1:54.52 |
| 15 | Timon Srahonovsky | CZE | 16 | 5.28 | 5.22 | 57.49 | 57.30 | 1:54.79 |
| 16 | Amedeo Bagnis | ITA | 3 | 4.95 | 5.62 | 56.56 | 58.74 | 1:55.30 |
| 17 | Adrian Rodriguez | ESP | 20 | 5.18 | 5.16 | 57.96 | 57.74 | 1:55.70 |
| 18 | Hunter Williams | USA | 17 | 5.12 | 5.11 | 57.96 | 57.78 | 1:55.74 |
| 19 | Colin Freeling | BEL | 18 | 5.25 | 5.20 | 58.27 | 57.87 | 1:56.14 |
| 20 | Vladyslav Polyvach | POL | 21 | 5.21 | 5.20 | 58.31 | 58.20 | 1:56.51 |
| 21 | Yaroslav Lavreniuk | UKR | 2 | 5.35 | 58.41 | |||
| 22 | Jonathan Maw | MAS | 1 | 5.22 | 58.44 | |||
| 23 | Jeff Bauer | LUX | 19 | 5.50 | 58.90 | |||
| 24 | Gabriel Berger | AUS | 24 | 5.67 | 59.77 |
