From Altenberg, GER
(January 20, 2023) – To slide clean in Altenberg is tough. To win in Altenberg is even harder. To go back-to-back in Altenberg is obviously even harder than that.
Great Britain’s Matt Weston was able to do all three of those things on Friday morning as he cruised to his second gold medal in Altenberg in two weeks. His first run down the German track was the quickest by .17 over Olympic champion Christopher Grotheer, with USA’s Austin Florian and Axel Jungk well back battling for bronze.
On the second run Weston mustered the third quickest run, but his advantage over everyone else was plenty large enough to hold onto the lead as he eventually finished .15 ahead of Grotheer to take gold, while Grotheer took silver.
The battle for bronze was between Florian, Jungk, and Seunggi Jung, who entered the second heat within .02 of each other. Jung was the first slider down, and for the second week in a row struggled to find his groove as he fell down the order to eventually seventh place. Jugnk was next, and on his home track he set what would be the fastest run of the competition to take the spot.
Florian was the final slider down of the three. His start was quick, and his slide was smooth, but Jungk was just too good on his home track. While Florian did fall out of the medals, he finished fourth, a career best on the World Cup circuit.
The podium ended up being exactly the same as it had been a week prior, with Wyatt, Grotheer, and Jungk taking the top three spots. Florian finished fourth, ahead of Marcus Wyatt (up from seventh in the first heat) and Wenhao Chen of China.
American Andrew Blaser put down his two best Atlenberg runs ever and finished 20th.
The Canadian men struggled in Altenberg. Blake Enzie finished 21st, two spots ahead of teammate Evan Neufeldt in 23rd.
Great Britain put all three men in the top ten, with Craig Thompson sliding into tenth place.
With two races remaining in the World Cup season, Christopher Grotheer holds the advantage over Marcus Wyatt. Matt Weston has worked his way back up to third after a disastrous week in Park City set him well back early in the year. Axel Jungk, Seunggi Jung, and Austin Florian round out the top six.
Results:
| Pos | Name | Nation | Bib | Start 1 | Start 2 | Run 1 | Run 2 | Total |
| 1 | Matt Weston | GBR | 8 | 4.93 | 4.94 | 57.15 | 57.01 | 1:54.16 |
| 2 | Christopher Grotheer | GER | 12 | 5.10 | 5.06 | 57.32 | 56.99 | 1:54.31 |
| 3 | Axel Jungk | GER | 5 | 5.06 | 5.02 | 57.67 | 56.87 | 1:54.54 |
| 4 | Austin Florian | USA | 13 | 4.97 | 4.97 | 57.66 | 57.20 | 1:54.86 |
| 5 | Marcus Wyatt | GBR | 7 | 4.96 | 4.95 | 57.90 | 57.11 | 1:55.01 |
| 6 | Wenhao Chen | CHN | 14 | 5.05 | 5.01 | 57.69 | 57.38 | 1:55.07 |
| 7 | Seunggi Jung | KOR | 11 | 5.04 | 5.03 | 57.88 | 57.21 | 1:55.09 |
| 8 | Zheng Yin | CHN | 16 | 4.93 | 4.91 | 57.90 | 57.37 | 1:55.27 |
| 9 | Wengang Yan | CHN | 4 | 5.16 | 5.08 | 58.04 | 57.47 | 1:55.51 |
| 10 | Craig Thompson | GBR | 17 | 5.05 | 5.06 | 58.02 | 57.59 | 1:55.61 |
| 11 | Jisoo Kim | KOR | 10 | 4.96 | 4.92 | 58.17 | 57.51 | 1:55.68 |
| 12 | Alexander Schlintner | AUT | 1 | 5.18 | 5.21 | 58.09 | 57.70 | 1:55.79 |
| 12 | Mattia Gaspari | ITA | 19 | 5.22 | 5.21 | 57.95 | 57.84 | 1:55.79 |
| 14 | Felix Keisinger | GER | 6 | 4.96 | 4.98 | 58.10 | 57.78 | 1:55.88 |
| 15 | Florian Auer | AUT | 15 | 5.29 | 5.26 | 58.28 | 57.90 | 1:56.18 |
| 16 | Vladyslav Heraskevych | UKR | 9 | 5.30 | 5.27 | 58.57 | 57.89 | 1:56.46 |
| 17 | Rasmus Johansen | DEN | 3 | 5.28 | 5.25 | 58.69 | 58.41 | 1:57.10 |
| 18 | Lucas Defayet | FRA | 22 | 5.24 | 5.25 | 58.55 | 58.57 | 1:57.12 |
| 19 | Basil Sieber | SUI | 20 | 5.37 | 5.35 | 58.63 | 58.53 | 1:57.16 |
| 20 | Andrew Blaser | USA | 2 | 5.19 | 5.27 | 58.73 | 58.67 | 1:57.40 |
| 21 | Blake Enzie | CAN | 18 | 5.28 | 58.74 | |||
| 22 | Manuel Schwärzer | ITA | 23 | 5.24 | 58.90 | |||
| 23 | Evan Neufeldt | CAN | 21 | 5.20 | 59.13 | |||
| 24 | Colin Freeling | BEL | 24 | 5.36 | 59.69 |
