From Winterberg, GER
(January 6, 2024) – Juri Gatt and Riccardo Schöpf held off an amazing charge by Tobais Wendl and Tobias Arlt to win their first gold medal of the 2023/2024 season.
The Austrian duo entered the second heat in second place behind teammates Thomas Steu and Wolfgang Kindl, with Germany’s Hannes Orlamünder and Paul Gubitz in third.
Back in a distant seventh was Germany’s Tobias Wendl & Tobias Arlt, who had what would be considered a disappointing first run by their standards.
To say they Wendl and Arlt rallied would be an understatement. The duo had a strong start, but an even better slide. In fact, their second effort was just about flawless as they snapped the old track record held by Toni Eggert and Sascha Benecken since 2016 by .003. That effort was enough to hold the lead with the two Austrian teams still to go.
Gatt and Schöpf were the next to last team off the top, and while their second run wasn’t perfect it was still enough to hold off the Germans and take the lead by just .066.
That left Steu and Kindl to go. The World Cup leaders entering the race hadn’t won a race yet but had been on the podium of every event thus far, so it was expected to see them contend for a medal.
But trouble happened right off the start as the Austrians took the start curve too hard, had to put their feet down and from there the race was over for them and they finished seventh.
That gave Gatt and Schöpf the victory, their second. Behind them were German teams of Wendl and Arlt and the duo of Hannes Orlamünder and Paul Gubitz, who took bronze.
“This is crazy, we absolutely didn’t expect to win,” Gatt told FIL’s Kate Hansen after the race. “We didn’t have a good week and had a crash yesterday. So we just thought we’d have our two runs and see what happens and this is just incredible.”
When asked how the team rallied from a training crash to win gold, Schöpf made it sound easy.
“It’s important that you stay cool and don’t think too much!”
Ivan Nagler and Fabian Malleier had two consistent runs to finish in fourth for Italy, while Latvia’s Martins Bots and Roberts Plume finished fifth, up from sixth in the first heat.
Zack DiGregorio and Sean Hollander had two decent runs but the American duo just had a multitude of small problems late that added up, but was still good enough for a top ten in eighth.
Dana Kellogg and Frank Ike put two American sleds in the top ten with a tenth place effort in their first race in Europe as a team.
Canadians Devin Wardrope and Cole Zajanski were at late scratch due to illness.
After three World Cup races plus a sprint, the team of Wendl and Arlt lead Steu and Kindl by just nine points. Bots and Plume sit third overall, with Gatt and Schöpf, Orlamünder and Gubitz, and DiGregorio and Hollander rounding out the top six.
Results:
| Pos | Name | Nation | Bib | Start 1 | Start 2 | Run 1 | Run 2 | Total |
| 1 | Gatt / Schöpf | AUT | 21 | 3.073 | 3.075 | 43.105 | 43.040 | 1:26.145 |
| 2 | Wendl / Arlt | GER | 23 | 3.029 | 3.023 | 43.271 | 42.940 | 1:26.211 |
| 3 | Orlamünder / Gubitz | GER | 24 | 3.045 | 3.059 | 43.158 | 43.078 | 1:26.236 |
| 4 | Nagler / Malleier | ITA | 14 | 3.027 | 3.043 | 43.198 | 43.195 | 1:26.393 |
| 5 | Bots / Plume | LAT | 19 | 3.053 | 3.070 | 43.238 | 43.245 | 1:26.483 |
| 6 | Rieder / Kainzwaldner | ITA | 15 | 3.107 | 3.121 | 43.224 | 43.318 | 1:26.542 |
| 7 | Steu / Kindl | AUT | 20 | 3.059 | 3.046 | 43.035 | 43.524 | 1:26.559 |
| 8 | DiGregorio / Hollander | USA | 16 | 3.072 | 3.037 | 43.322 | 43.335 | 1:26.657 |
| 9 | Jäger / Steudte | GER | 12 | 3.092 | 3.100 | 43.370 | 43.330 | 1:26.700 |
| 10 | Kellogg / Ike | USA | 11 | 3.078 | 3.097 | 43.376 | 43.431 | 1:26.807 |
| 11 | Rieder / Gufler | ITA | 10 | 3.062 | 3.059 | 43.409 | 43.433 | 1:26.842 |
| 12 | Vavercak / Zmij | SVK | 18 | 3.110 | 3.108 | 43.700 | 43.621 | 1:27.321 |
| 13 | Chmielewski / Kowalewski | POL | 17 | 3.062 | 3.090 | 43.939 | 43.463 | 1:27.402 |
| 14 | Jubayi / Hou | CHN | 7 | 3.070 | 3.067 | 43.913 | 44.107 | 1:28.020 |
| 15 | Sevics-Mikelsevics / Krasts | LAT | 13 | 3.069 | 3.099 | 43.708 | 44.361 | 1:28.069 |
| 16 | Handaric / Motzca | ROU | 6 | 3.137 | 3.127 | 44.094 | 44.055 | 1:28.149 |
| 17 | Hoi / Kachmar | UKR | 5 | 3.131 | 3.129 | 44.139 | 44.031 | 1:28.170 |
| 18 | Huang / Peng | CHN | 3 | 3.103 | 3.110 | 44.266 | 43.982 | 1:28.248 |
| 19 | Mykyievych / Babura | UKR | 2 | 3.105 | 3.102 | 44.429 | 44.056 | 1:28.485 |
| 20 | Gitlan / Serban | ROU | 9 | 3.193 | 3.141 | 44.476 | 44.113 | 1:28.589 |
| 21 | Bosman / Macko | SVK | 4 | 3.155 | 3.146 | 45.633 | 43.973 | 1:29.606 |
| DNF | Baltgalvis / Jegorovs | LAT | 8 | 3.093 | DNF | |||
| DNF | Müller / Frauscher | AUT | 22 | 3.066 | DNF | |||
| DNS | Wardrope / Zajanski | CAN | 1 | DNS |