Bots & Plume Defend Home Ice in Sigulda

From Sigulda, LAT

(January 7, 2023) – Martins Bots and Roberts Plume scored a decisive victory on their home ice in Sigulda, setting the track record on their way to victory.

Bots and Plume used home course knowledge and rock hard ice to set the track record in their first run of competition and opened up a .102 second lead over Tobais Wendl and Tobias Arlt of Germany. On their second run the young Latvian went even faster, lowering their own time by .08 to set the track record once again and win gold.

The win was the Latvian duo’s first of the year and second medal of their season.

For Wendl and Arlt, the Germans were otherwise unmatched as they had the second quickest time of both heats on their way to a silver medal finish. They also briefly held the track record, lowering it from a 41.361 to a 41.335 before Bots and Plume dropped it to a 41.281.

Emanuel Rieder and Simon Kainzwaldner finished third, .382 off the pace set by the Latvians.

Toni Eggert and Sascha Benecken finished fourth, as they were never really looked comfortable on the Latvian track. The Latvian do of Eduards Sevics-Mikelsevics and Kukass Krasts finished fifth, while Germans Hannes Orlamünder and Paul Gubitz rounded out the top six.

Americans Zack Digregorio and Sean Hollander moved up from tenth place in the first heat to finish eighth. Teammates Dana Kellogg and Duncan Segger entered the second heat in 11th place and looked to have a solid second run going but crashed late and did not finish.

Canada’s Devin Wardrope and Cole Zajanski finished just outside the top ten in 11th.

The Latvian track was tough on the Austrian women’s luge athletes earlier in the day and continued to beat up on the Austrians in the doubles event. Thomas Steu and Lorenz Koller entered the second heat in sixth place, but a big mistake out of Curve 14 dropped them to 12th, while Juri Gatt and Riccardo Schöpf crashed in their first run and finished 16th, 16 seconds off the pace.

Results: