Aparjods Breaks Track Record in Sigulda Victory

From Sigulda, LAT

(January 8, 2023) – A big weekend for Latvia got even bigger on Sunday, as Kristers Aparjods shattered the track record on his way to gold in Sigulda.

Aparjods was out-started in both heats, but by the second split had the lead both times down the track in Sigulda. In his first run he set a new track record with a 47.615, .2 faster than the old record. His second run, while maybe not quite as clean, was just a tick quicker as the track record was lowered once again to a 57.613 to give Aparjods a gold medal.

Aparjods’ two runs were the two quickest of the race.

Germany’s Max Langenhan, making his first start of the World Cup season, was the only other slider to record a downtime in the 47.6 range as his second run was enough to catapult him from fourth to the silver medal position.

Dominik Fischnaller gave Italy a bronze medal on the strength of two consistent slides that left him only .014 out of silver.

It looked like Felix Loch would be on his way to another medal, but a pair of small skids were just enough to drop him out of the medals into fourth place.

Despite Austria’s woes in Sigulda, of which there were many, the Gleirschers were able to throw together some solid runs to place both brothers in the top six. David, the 2018 Olympic gold medalist, bested Nico by nearly a tenth of a second for fifth, while Nico took sixth.

The United States had two men entered in the event. Tucker West finished tenth on the strength of starts that were only bested by Felix Loch. Teammate Jonny Gustafson crashed in his first run and did not finish. He was later disqualified for a piece of his sled coming off.

Australia’s Alex Ferlazzo crashed in his first run, but put down a 16th quick run in the second heat to finish 26th.

With his bronze medal effort, Dominik Fischnaller leads the World Cup standings by 93 points over Wolfgang Kindl, who finished 11th on Sunday. David Gleirscher sits third, with Felix Loch fourth and Kristers Aparjods fifth.

Results: