From Jaufental, ITA
(From February 3, 2024) – Patrick Pigneter led an Italian sweep of the podium on Saturday, beating out teammates Fabian Brunner and Matthias Lambacher for gold.
Pigneter opened up a big lead after the first heat, over three quarters of a second over Brunner, with Lambacher the only other slider within a second of Pigneter.
The second heat saw Lambacher come back to Austria’s Michael Scheikl, leaving Brunner and Pigneter to battle amongst themselves.
Brunner slid to what would be a heat-fastest downtime in the second heat to guarantee himself no worse than a silver medal. Pigneter responded, and while his downtime was off the pace of Brunner, he’d left himself plenty of cushion to take gold.
The margin of victory was a half of a second.
Pigneter’s gold was his fourth in five races.
Lambacher took bronze, ahead of Scheikl in fourth. Daniel Gruber finished fifth and Swiss slider Stefan Federer sixth.
Torrey Cookman finished 15th for the United States, with Teammate Mason Palecek in 23rd.
With two races to go in the 2023/2024 FIL World Cup season, Pigneter has a sizeable lead over Michael Scheikl, with Daniel Gruber, Florian Clara and Fabian Brunner rounding out the top five.
Results:
| Pos | Name | Nation | Bib | Start 1 | Start 2 | Run 1 | Run 2 | Total |
| 1 | Patrick Pigneter | ITA | 34 | 9.59 | 9.67 | 52.85 | 53.40 | 1:46.25 |
| 2 | Fabian Brunner | ITA | 30 | 9.59 | 9.55 | 53.64 | 53.12 | 1:46.76 |
| 3 | Matthias Lambacher | ITA | 19 | 9.69 | 9.65 | 53.82 | 53.77 | 1:47.59 |
| 4 | Michael Scheikl | AUT | 31 | 9.79 | 9.51 | 54.15 | 53.59 | 1:47.74 |
| 5 | Daniel Gruber | ITA | 32 | 9.59 | 9.81 | 54.04 | 54.12 | 1:48.16 |
| 6 | Stefan Federer | SUI | 29 | 9.71 | 9.70 | 53.89 | 54.69 | 1:48.58 |
| 7 | Gabriel Halcin | SVK | 22 | 9.83 | 9.84 | 54.54 | 54.18 | 1:48.72 |
| 8 | Miguel Brugger | AUT | 26 | 9.86 | 9.59 | 54.60 | 54.13 | 1:48.73 |
| 9 | Florian Markt | AUT | 25 | 9.83 | 9.85 | 54.24 | 54.52 | 1:48.76 |
| 10 | Vid Kralj | SLO | 27 | 9.89 | 9.70 | 55.15 | 54.15 | 1:49.30 |
| 11 | Sebastian Feldhammer | AUT | 24 | 9.83 | 9.75 | 54.59 | 54.73 | 1:49.32 |
| 12 | Jerome Almer | SUI | 20 | 9.94 | 9.85 | 55.47 | 54.82 | 1:50.29 |
| 13 | Ziga Kralj | SLO | 28 | 10.09 | 9.77 | 56.49 | 54.00 | 1:50.49 |
| 14 | Marco Almer | SUI | 11 | 10.12 | 10.16 | 55.65 | 55.14 | 1:50.79 |
| 15 | Torrey Cookman | USA | 15 | 10.06 | 9.99 | 55.87 | 55.08 | 1:50.95 |
| 16 | Simon Dietz | GER | 23 | 9.93 | 10.12 | 55.53 | 55.48 | 1:51.01 |
| 17 | Bine Mekina | GER | 21 | 9.97 | 11.49 | 54.63 | 57.13 | 1:51.76 |
| 18 | Dominik Neupauer | SVK | 14 | 10.02 | 9.87 | 56.10 | 56.41 | 1:52.51 |
| 19 | Remi d’ Aviau de Ternay | FRA | 17 | 10.17 | 10.18 | 56.05 | 56.48 | 1:52.53 |
| 20 | Peter Neupauer | SVK | 18 | 10.19 | 10.02 | 56.80 | 56.57 | 1:53.37 |
| 21 | Coskun Ercoskun | NOR | 8 | 10.17 | 10.46 | 56.76 | 56.89 | 1:53.65 |
| 22 | David Rydl | CZE | 7 | 9.98 | 10.49 | 57.10 | 56.67 | 1:53.77 |
| 23 | Mason Palecek | USA | 13 | 10.42 | 10.22 | 57.41 | 57.35 | 1:54.76 |
| 24 | Tomas Hasek | CZE | 6 | 10.33 | 10.51 | 59.05 | 58.01 | 1:57.06 |
| 25 | Wojciech Kwiecinski | POL | 3 | 10.42 | 10.52 | 58.99 | 58.24 | 1:57.23 |
| 26 | Shohei Tanaka | SUI | 16 | 11.58 | 11.59 | 60.74 | 61.56 | 2:02.30 |