Pigneter Wins Second of the Season in Umhausen

January 20, 2024 ken Luge News, News 0

From Umhausen, AUT

(January 20, 2024) – As they had all season so far, the men of the FIL World Cup on Natural Track put on a show on Saturday where Patrick Pigneter rallied from behind to win his second gold of the season.

L-R: Clara, Pigneter Scheikl (Courtesy FIL / Andreas Ebermann)

Pigneter’s longtime doubles teammate Florian Clara led after the first heat, with Austria’s Michael Scheikl two tenths back in second, and Pigneter a distant third, a half of a second off the pace.

In a second heat where the bulk of everyone’s second run was slower than their first, Pigneter threw down a huge second run that was nearly a full second faster than his first. That time was enough to hold off Scheikl, whose second effort was .82 off of the second run time of Pigneter.

The final slider down was Clara. And while Clara’s second slide was good, it needed to be great. The Italian crossed the finish line .06 ahead of Scheikl to give Italy a one-two finish, but found himself .44 behind his teammate to wins silver.

Pigneter’s victory was his second of the season and third straight podium. Clara’s silver was a season best, and second medal of the season.

Scheikl was the top Austrian on Austrian soil with a bronze medal. He now has a silver and bronze in two races in Austria after finishing second in the season opener in Kühtai.

Italy took four of the top five spots in Saturday’s event. Daniel Gruber finished fourth, exactly one second behind Scheikl, while Fabian Brunner rounded out the top five.

Torrey Cookman was the top American in the field with a 15th place finish. Teammates Mason Palecek and Leonard Pizziola finished 21st and 22nd, respectively.

Results:

Pos Name Nation Bib Start 1 Start 2 Run 1 Run 2 Total
1 Patrick Pigneter ITA 28 11.64 11.56 72.56 71.60 2:24.16
2 Florian Clara ITA 25 11.59 11.57 72.04 72.56 2:24.60
3 Michael Scheikl AUT 26 11.49 11.50 72.24 72.42 2:24.66
4 Daniel Gruber ITA 27 11.59 11.70 72.66 73.00 2:25.66
5 Fabian Brunner ITA 22 11.53 11.57 72.91 72.83 2:25.74
6 Stefan Federer SUI 23 11.55 11.59 73.27 73.03 2:26.30
7 Sebastian Feldhammer AUT 13 11.84 11.73 73.11 73.41 2:26.52
8 Vid Kralj SLO 21 11.68 11.74 73.15 73.71 2:26.86
9 Ziga Kralj SLO 24 11.70 11.66 73.56 73.50 2:27.06
10 Miguel Brugger AUT 19 11.55 11.68 73.35 74.46 2:27.81
11 Leon Auer AUT 10 11.65 11.89 73.64 74.55 2:28.19
12 Gabriel Halcin SVK 12 11.87 11.82 75.04 74.16 2:30.20
13 Bine Mekina GER 14 11.90 11.93 75.62 75.53 2:31.15
14 Simon Dietz GER 17 11.80 11.83 75.21 75.99 2:31.20
15 Torrey Cookman USA 7 12.18 12.22 75.54 76.48 2:32.02
16 Jerome Almer SUI 15 11.81 11.87 75.65 77.08 2:32.73
17 Dominik Neupauer SVK 6 12.17 12.23 76.56 76.75 2:23.31
18 Remi D Aviau de Ternay FRA 16 12.12 12.34 76.66 77.24 2:33.90
19 Vincent Steit GER 1 12.02 12.25 76.95 77.88 2:34.83
20 Peter Neupauer SVK 11 12.05 12.09 77.28 78.15 2:35.43
21 Mason Palecek USA 5 13.15 13.83 82.04 84.04 2:46.07
22 Leonard Pizziola USA 3 12.94 13.31 81.49 85.20 2:46.69
23 Shohei Tanaka SUI 9 13.13 13.50 84.80 84.96 2:49.76
DNS Marian Budzak SVK 4 DNS