From La Plagne, FRA
(December 8, 2023) – South Korea’s Seunggi Jung broke the start record in La Plagne on his way to victory, edging out a trio of British sliders and an Olympic gold medalist.
Jung set the start record in the first heat and slid to a .08 second lead over Germany’s Christopher Grotheer. Behind Grotheer was Great Britain’s Matt Weston, Craig Thompson, and Marcus Wyatt all in position for the medals.
On the second heat Wyatt was the first of the contenders off the top. The British slider slid to the lead with what would be the second best downtime of the heat. He leapfrogged Thompson by .15 to hold his spot and move up one.
Weston was next, and put down the quickest time of the heat to slide to the lead. That slide was enough to tie with Grotheer, who had trouble early in his run to fall back to Weston.
That left Weston between Jung and gold. Jung’s second start was even quicker than his first. A late skid brought him back to Weston but he had enough in his first run to take the win by .08 over Weston.
The win for Jung was his first in World Cup action. He’d previously won three silvers and two bronze medals over the course of the last two seasons.
Weston won silver, while Grotheer and Wyatt tied for bronze.
Thompson finished fifth, .15 out of the medals. Italy’s Amedeo Bagnis rounded out the top six.
The United States put both of their athletes in the top 20. Austin Florian slid from 18th in the first heat to 15th, while Daniel Barefoot finished two spots back in 17th.
Jacob Salisbury finished 20th, up from 25th in the first heat to put all British sleds in the top 20, while Canada’s Blake Enzie finished 24th. Jordan Rwiyamilira, in his World Cup debut, finished 30th.
Results:
| Pos | Name | Nation | Bib | Start 1 | Start 2 | Run 1 | Run 2 | Total |
| 1 | Seunggi Jung | KOR | 7 | 5.52 | 5.51 | 60.15 | 60.46 | 2:00.61 |
| 2 | Matt Weston | GBR | 4 | 5.71 | 5.65 | 60.43 | 60.26 | 2:00.69 |
| 3 | Christopher Grotheer | GER | 9 | 5.81 | 5.80 | 60.23 | 60.71 | 2:00.94 |
| 3 | Marcus Wyatt | GBR | 13 | 5.72 | 5.66 | 60.52 | 60.42 | 2:00.94 |
| 5 | Craig Thompson | GBR | 12 | 5.72 | 5.66 | 60.50 | 60.59 | 2:01.09 |
| 6 | Amedeo Bagnis | ITA | 15 | 5.71 | 5.62 | 60.74 | 60.49 | 2:01.23 |
| 7 | Felix Keisinger | GER | 21 | 5.68 | 5.61 | 60.81 | 60.80 | 2:01.61 |
| 8 | Samuel Maier | AUT | 2 | 5.87 | 5.85 | 60.81 | 60.86 | 2:01.67 |
| 9 | Felix Seibel | GER | 23 | 5.92 | 5.88 | 61.06 | 60.92 | 2:01.98 |
| 10 | Jisoo Kim | KOR | 3 | 5.64 | 5.62 | 60.78 | 61.29 | 2:02.07 |
| 11 | Mattia Gaspari | ITA | 6 | 5.95 | 5.93 | 60.97 | 61.14 | 2:02.11 |
| 11 | Vladyslav Heraskevych | UKR | 8 | 5.94 | 5.91 | 60.99 | 61.12 | 2:02.11 |
| 13 | Axel Jungk | GER | 20 | 5.84 | 5.76 | 61.10 | 61.08 | 2:02.18 |
| 14 | Alexander Schlintner | AUT | 26 | 5.82 | 5.85 | 61.05 | 61.41 | 2:02.46 |
| 15 | Austin Florian | USA | 24 | 5.66 | 5.69 | 61.52 | 61.11 | 2:02.63 |
| 16 | Manuel Schwärzer | ITA | 31 | 5.81 | 5.80 | 61.33 | 61.31 | 2:02.64 |
| 17 | Daniel Barefoot | USA | 19 | 5.91 | 5.93 | 61.31 | 61.36 | 2:02.67 |
| 18 | Wenhao Chen | CHN | 11 | 5.79 | 5.75 | 61.41 | 61.50 | 2:02.91 |
| 19 | Zheng Yin | CHN | 10 | 5.70 | 5.70 | 61.63 | 61.41 | 2:03.04 |
| 20 | Jacbob Salisbury | GBR | 14 | 5.64 | 5.65 | 62.06 | 61.19 | 2:03.25 |
| 21 | Lucas Defayet | FRA | 27 | 5.80 | 5.81 | 61.63 | 61.64 | 2:03.27 |
| 22 | Vinzenz Buff | SUI | 29 | 5.94 | 6.03 | 61.62 | 61.70 | 2:03.32 |
| 22 | Rasmus Johanesen | DEN | 16 | 5.91 | 5.90 | 61.65 | 61.67 | 2:03.32 |
| 24 | Blake Enzie | CAN | 25 | 5.90 | 5.87 | 61.77 | 61.62 | 2:03.39 |
| 25 | Wengang Yan | CHN | 5 | 5.93 | 5.89 | 61.77 | 61.98 | 2:03.75 |
| 26 | Livio Summermater | SUI | 18 | 6.03 | 62.14 | |||
| 27 | Timon Drahonovsky | CZE | 30 | 6.20 | 62.24 | |||
| 28 | Colin Freeling | BEL | 17 | 6.21 | 62.39 | |||
| 29 | Jordan Rwiyamilira | CAN | 32 | 5.80 | 62.72 | |||
| 30 | Adrian Rodriguez | ESP | 1 | 5.98 | 62.76 | |||
| 31 | Vladyslav Polyvach | POL | 28 | 6.08 | 63.37 |
