Zeleznik Wins First Career NAC Gold

From Lake Placid, USA

(December 3, 2022) – Czechia’s Sebastian Zeleznik beat out Canada’s Kyle Donsberger to win his first career North American Cup gold medal in Lake Placid.

Zeleznik led Ghana’s Akwasi Frimpong by .3 going into the second heat. On that second run Donsberger put down the quick run of the heat and that was enough to beat out Frimpong for the lead, with only Zeleznik to go.

On the Czech slider’s second run he wasn’t quite as quick as Donsberger, but Zeleznik had enough in the first heat to win gold, the first of his career and second medal of the weekend.

Donsberger finished second, .25 out for his first career silver medal. He’d scored four straight top six finishes prior to his first medal.

While he fell out of second, Ghana’s Akwasi Frimpong scored his first career IBSF medal with a bronze.

Canadahad a strong showing in Lake Placid, with three sliders in the top six. Ryan Kuehn finished fourth and Jordan Rwiyamilira in fifth. For Keuhn, fourth tied a career best, while fifth for Rwiyamilira was a career best.

Taiwan’s Chun-Hung Chiang also scored a career-best finish with his first ever top six in sixth.

Nick Tucker was the top American in seventh place, also a career-best. Teammate Bradley NIcol finished one spot back in eighth. Darryl Payne and Nicholas Brooks finished 10th and 11th to round out the Team USA effort.

Results:

Pos Name Nation Bib Start 1 Start 2 Run 1 Run 2 Finish
1 Sebastian Zeleznik CZE 10 5.11 5.19 55.66 57.01 1:52.67
2 Kyle Donsberger CAN 4 4.99 5.02 56.07 56.85 1:52.92
3 Akwasi Frimpong GHA 9 4.90 4.92 55.96 57.55 1:53.51
4 Ryan Kuehn CAN 1 5.01 4.97 56.13 57.60 1:53.73
5 Jordan Rwiyamilira CAN 2 4.95 5.06 56.55 58.47 1:55.02
6 Chun-Hung Chiang TPE 6 5.33 5.27 57.29 58.00 1:55.29
7 Nicholas Tucker USA 5 4.79 4.86 56.87 56.84 1:55.51
8 Bradley Nicol USA 13 4.95 4.93 56.80 60.21 1:57.01
9 Lin-Wei Peng TPE 11 5.21 5.19 58.19 58.86 1:57.05
10 Darryl Payne USA 7 4.88 4.94 58.50 59.93 1:58.43
11 Nicholas Brooks USA 8 5.14 5.19 58.53 60.53 1:59.06
DNS Brendan Doyle IRL 3 5.05 56.14 DNS
DNS Jared Firestone ISR 12 DNS