From Altenberg, GER
(December 21, 2023) – Cedric Renner held off 37 other sliders to win Europe Cup gold in Altenberg.
Renner had a .34 second advantage over German teammate Stefan Röttig after one heat. Behind them were Lukas Nydegger, China’s Wenqiang Geng, and Great Britain’s Laurence Bostock all within .51 seconds of Renner.
In the second heat Bostock threw down a big second run, the quickest of the contenders, to take the lead and hold it as neither Geng nor Nydegger could match his pace.
Röttig looked to be able to unseat Bostock, but a mistake late in his run put him .22 behind the Brit with only Renner to go.
Renner’s second run wasn’t nearly as good as his first, and while all of the contending sliders’ second run were significantly slower on a track that had seen 117 runs between women’s and men’s skeleton to that point, Renner’s was even a little more off the pace than that. Fortunately for him he had more than enough in the bank from his first run and was able to take gold in the final Europe Cup race of the 2023 calendar year.
Bostock took silver, while Nydegger finished third for bronze.
Röttig fell to fourth from second in the first heat, while Geng and Canada’s Blake Enzie finished fifth and sixth, respectively.
The sixth place finish for Enzie was his best finish ever on either the Europe Cup or Intercontinental Cup tours.
Dutch slider Rasmus Johansen was the very last slider off in the first heat but despite that still managed a 13th place run on a very worn out track. His second run was the fastest of the second heat, nearly a full second quicker than his first to move him from 13th to seventh.
Like Johansen, Great Britain’s Jacob Salisbury started well back in the field and his first run time suffered for it. HIs second run was third quickest to move him from 19th to 12th. Teammates Patrick Atkin and Kane Densley finished 15th and 24th.
The United States held their ground in a massive field in Altenberg. Hunter Williams was the top American in 21st, up from 24th in the first heat. Daniel Barefoot finished 23rd, while Nick Tucker scored 25th in his second start ever in Altenberg.
Ryan Kuehn and David Park Troy Wilson finished 30th and 32nd for Canada.
Results:
| Pos | Name | Nation | Bib | Start 1 | Start 2 | Run 1 | Run 2 | Finish |
| 1 | Cedric Renner | GER | 5 | 5.28 | 5.19 | 56.85 | 58.34 | 1:55.19 |
| 2 | Laurence Bostock | GBR | 7 | 5.00 | 4.97 | 57.36 | 58.13 | 1:55.49 |
| 3 | Lukas Nydegger | GER | 10 | 5.27 | 5.25 | 57.28 | 58.43 | 1:55.71 |
| 4 | Stefan Röttig | GER | 12 | 5.03 | 4.99 | 57.19 | 58.53 | 1:55.72 |
| 5 | Wenqiang Geng | CHN | 8 | 5.15 | 5.17 | 57.34 | 58.93 | 1:56.27 |
| 6 | Blake Enzie | CAN | 3 | 5.13 | 5.08 | 57.94 | 58.50 | 1:56.44 |
| 7 | Rasmus Johansen | DEN | 38 | 5.21 | 5.15 | 58.84 | 57.89 | 1:56.73 |
| 8 | Timm Beiwinkler | GER | 13 | 5.32 | 5.31 | 57.66 | 59.19 | 1:56.85 |
| 9 | Cedrik Langer | GER | 4 | 5.22 | 5.22 | 58.07 | 59.07 | 1:57.14 |
| 10 | Qinwei Lin | CHN | 9 | 4.92 | 4.95 | 58.20 | 59.05 | 1:57.25 |
| 11 | Haifeng Zhu | CHN | 1 | 5.06 | 5.06 | 57.40 | 59.86 | 1:57.26 |
| 12 | Jacob Salisbury | GBR | 33 | 4.99 | 4.98 | 59.43 | 58.16 | 1:57.59 |
| 13 | Niels Sommer | GER | 18 | 5.22 | 5.22 | 58.90 | 58.79 | 1:57.69 |
| 14 | Vinzenz Buff | SUI | 32 | 5.31 | 5.28 | 59.18 | 58.67 | 1:57.85 |
| 15 | Patrick Atkin | GBR | 2 | 5.15 | 5.13 | 58.28 | 59.58 | 1:57.86 |
| 16 | Livio Summermatter | SUI | 31 | 5.05 | 5.03 | 59.43 | 58.93 | 1:58.36 |
| 17 | Giovanni Marchetti | ITA | 14 | 5.14 | 5.16 | 58.76 | 59.87 | 1:58.63 |
| 18 | Timon Drahonovsky | CZE | 28 | 5.53 | 5.56 | 59.56 | 59.08 | 1:58.64 |
| 19 | Lars Rumo | SUI | 19 | 5.45 | 5.42 | 59.52 | 59.28 | 1:58.80 |
| 20 | Pietro Drovanti | ITA | 11 | 4.98 | 4.94 | 59.33 | 59.87 | 1:59.20 |
| 21 | Hunter Williams | USA | 16 | 5.19 | 5.15 | 59.99 | 59.35 | 1:59.34 |
| 22 | Guido Persoon | NED | 20 | 5.08 | 5.05 | 59.73 | 60.11 | 1:59.84 |
| 23 | Daniel Barefoot | USA | 36 | 5.23 | 5.21 | 59.29 | 60.61 | 1:59.90 |
| 24 | Kane Densley | GBR | 6 | 5.08 | 5.08 | 59.17 | 60.86 | 2:00.03 |
| 25 | Nicholas Tucker | USA | 15 | 5.29 | 5.35 | 60.12 | 59.94 | 2:00.06 |
| 26 | Joeri van Kuppeveld | NED | 17 | 5.20 | 60.33 | |||
| 27 | Andrea Monti | ITA | 21 | 5.19 | 60.41 | |||
| 28 | Ryan Kuehn | CAN | 30 | 5.01 | 60.85 | |||
| 29 | Gabriele Marenchino | ITA | 22 | 5.13 | 60.87 | |||
| 30 | David Park | CAN | 29 | 5.13 | 61.33 | |||
| 31 | Eloy Fernandez | ESP | 27 | 5.54 | 61.51 | |||
| 32 | Troy Wilson | CAN | 35 | 5.29 | 61.66 | |||
| 33 | Lin-Wei Peng | TPE | 37 | 5.40 | 62.06 | |||
| 34 | Gidon Bante | NED | 23 | 5.35 | 62.36 | |||
| 35 | Bor van den Berg | NED | 25 | 5.31 | 62.81 | |||
| 36 | Lorenzo Conti | ITA | 26 | 5.35 | 63.80 | |||
| 37 | Roman Tanzer | AUT | 24 | 5.24 | 64.52 | |||
| 38 | Hubert Licman | SLO | 34 | 6.62 | 69.72 |