From Altenberg, GER
(February 3, 2024) – Juri Gatt and Riccardo Schöpf may not have been on home ice over the past few weekends, but Altenberg has definitely felt homey for the duo. On Saturday morning the Austrian duo won gold in the World Cup men’s doubles event one weekend after winning World Championships gold.
Gatt and Schöpf trailed Tobias Wendl and Tobias Arlt after one run in a warm, wet Altenberg, with Thomas Steu and Wolfgang Kindl in third. In the second heat, Steu and Kindl slid to the lead, but were edged by just .008 by Gatt and Schöpf after an early mistake set the world champions back early.
Wendl and Arlt, the favorites coming into the race, just needed a clean slide to win gold, and early on the Germans were well ahead. However a big mistake out of Curve 9, then another out of the Kreisel destroyed their run and dropped them not just out of the medals but out of the top ten entirely.
The Germans’ issues meant a second straight gold medal in Altenberg for Gatt and Schöpf, and a second straight silver for Steu and Kindl, this time by .008 behind their teammates.
Italy had a big day in Altenberg. Emanuel Rieder and Simon Kainzwaldner finished third for their first medal of the 2023/2024 World Cup season. Teammates Ivan Nagler and Fabian Malleier finished fifth, up from 14th in the first heat with the second quickest run in the second heat.
Wedged between the Italians were Martins Bots and Roberts Plume, who missed out on a medal by a hundredth of a second.
Dana Kellogg and Frank Ike continued a streak of really consistent runs in Altenberg with another pair of good slides no their way to a sixth place finish. Teammates Zack DiGregorio and Sean Hollander cleaned up some issues they had during the previous week’s World Championships and finished 11th.
After five race weekends for the FIL World Cup men’s doubles program, Steu and Kindl lead Bots and Plume by 76 points. Wendl and Arlt fall to third, five points behind the Latvians, with Gatt and Schöpf and Hannes Orlamünder and Paul Gubitz rounding out the top five.
Results:
| Pos | Name | Nation | Bib | Start 1 | Start 2 | Run 1 | Run 2 | Total |
| 1 | Gatt / Schöpf | AUT | 16 | 5.834 | 5.809 | 42.531 | 42.460 | 1:24.991 |
| 2 | Steu / Kindl | AUT | 21 | 5.778 | 5.758 | 42.539 | 42.460 | 1:24.999 |
| 3 | Rieder / Kainzwaldner | ITA | 14 | 5.805 | 5.778 | 42.646 | 42.470 | 1:25.116 |
| 4 | Bots / Plume | LAT | 19 | 5.822 | 5.765 | 42.772 | 42.354 | 1:25.126 |
| 5 | Nagler / Malleier | ITA | 18 | 5.812 | 5.785 | 42.879 | 42.458 | 1:25.337 |
| 6 | Kellogg / Ike | USA | 8 | 5.887 | 5.861 | 42.672 | 42.690 | 1:25.362 |
| 7 | Orlamünder / Gubitz | GER | 20 | 5.836 | 5.823 | 42.763 | 42.613 | 1:25.376 |
| 8 | Chmielewski / Kowalewski | POL | 12 | 5.830 | 5.790 | 42.862 | 42.625 | 1:25.487 |
| 9 | Jäger / Steudte | GER | 11 | 5.850 | 5.846 | 42.851 | 42.670 | 1:25.521 |
| 10 | Müller / Frauscher | AUT | 10 | 5.827 | 5.845 | 42.875 | 42.651 | 1:25.526 |
| 11 | DiGregorio / Hollander | USA | 9 | 5.820 | 5.815 | 42.796 | 42.745 | 1:25.541 |
| 12 | Vavercak / Zmij | SVK | 7 | 5.849 | 5.829 | 42.819 | 42.904 | 1:25.723 |
| 13 | Rieder / Gufler | ITA | 15 | 5.821 | 5.826 | 42.973 | 42.876 | 1:25.849 |
| 14 | Jubayi / Hou | CHN | 4 | 5.848 | 5.803 | 42.993 | 42.860 | 1:25.853 |
| 15 | Sevics-Mikelsevics / Krasts | LAT | 13 | 5.816 | 5.779 | 42.746 | 43.150 | 1:25.896 |
| 16 | Wendl / Arlt | GER | 17 | 5.766 | 5.774 | 42.493 | 43.564 | 1:26.057 |
| 17 | Park / Cho | KOR | 5 | 5.927 | 5.849 | 43.094 | 43.021 | 1:26.115 |
| 18 | Huang / Peng | CHN | 1 | 5.924 | 5.900 | 43.204 | 42.954 | 1:26.158 |
| 19 | Handaric / Motzca | ROU | 6 | 5.967 | 5.913 | 43.254 | 42.973 | 1:26.227 |
| 20 | Hoi / Kachmar | UKR | 2 | 5.996 | 5.973 | 43.324 | 43.441 | 1:26.765 |
| 21 | Gitlan / Serban | ROU | 3 | 5.932 | 5.896 | 43.199 | 43.925 | 1:27.124 |