From Oberhof, GER
(February 17, 2024) – Despite a level of dominance that the FIL World Cup hasn’t seen on artificial track in a while, Oberhof continues to be a thorn in Max Langenhan’s side. The same track where a year prior he lost his only races of the season, World Championships men’s singles and the sprint, Langenhan again couldn’t take the top spot of the podium, once again being fended off by Austria’s Jonas Müller.
Müller, winner of the previous year’s World Championships gold ahead of Langenhan, slid to the lead in the first heat, only .032 ahead of Langenhan. In third sat Felix Loch, the winner of the sprint world championship race in 2023 ahead of Müller and Langenhan.
In the second heat, Loch slid to a large lead over Austria’s Wolfang Kindl, nearly three tenths, with just Langenhan and Müller to go. Langenhan went next, and while his second downtime was a little slower than Loch’s, it was still enough to take the lead from his teammate by .022.
Müller’s second run started with the fastest start of the day. From there, the Austrian had the best intermediate split at every point down the track on his way to a still-tight .076 victory.
Müller’s victory was his second on the season, while Langenhan’s silver was his second straight and eighth medal in eight races this season.
Loch’s bronze medal was just his second medal of the season.
Kindl finished fourth, ahead of the previous weekend’s winner, and the only other winner this season in men’s singles, Kristers Aparjods in fifth. Dominik Fischnaller rounded out the top six.
Tucker West finished tenth with two consistent slides to lead the way for the United States. Jonny Gustafson had a big skid in each heat that dropped him to 19th and out of Sunday’s sprint. Hunter Harris finished 23rd.
The race was contested under a modified start list, where the top five from Nation’s Cup went from fifth to first, then the seeded group went, then the remainder of the Nation’s Cup field.
With four races to go in the 2023/2024 FIL World Cup season, Max Langenhan has a substantial 161 point lead over Jonas Müller. Kristers Aprjods is third, with Nico Gleirscher and Dominik Fischnaller rounding out the top five.
Results:
| Pos | Name | Nation | Bib | Start 1 | Start 2 | Run 1 | Run 2 | Total |
| 1 | Jonas Müller | AUT | 13 | 7.162 | 7.137 | 43.015 | 43.018 | 1:26.033 |
| 2 | Max Langenhan | GER | 17 | 7.172 | 7.193 | 43.047 | 43.062 | 1:26.109 |
| 3 | Felix Loch | GER | 11 | 7.153 | 7.146 | 43.083 | 43.048 | 1:26.131 |
| 4 | Wolfgang Kindl | AUT | 16 | 7.189 | 7.191 | 43.169 | 43.229 | 1:26.398 |
| 5 | Kristers Aparjods | LAT | 15 | 7.182 | 7.178 | 43.250 | 43.191 | 1:26.441 |
| 6 | Dominik Fischnaller | ITA | 8 | 7.194 | 7.209 | 43.245 | 43.234 | 1:26.479 |
| 7 | David Gleirscher | AUT | 14 | 7.212 | 7.211 | 43.240 | 43.265 | 1:26.505 |
| 8 | Nico Gleirscher | AUT | 12 | 7.215 | 7.194 | 43.328 | 43.209 | 1:26.537 |
| 9 | Timon Grancagnolo | GER | 10 | 7.246 | 7.240 | 43.314 | 43.298 | 1:26.612 |
| 10 | Tucker West | USA | 6 | 7.180 | 7.202 | 43.291 | 43.421 | 1:26.712 |
| 11 | Leon Felderer | ITA | 9 | 7.244 | 7.218 | 43.376 | 43.340 | 1:26.716 |
| 12 | Gints Berzins | LAT | 5 | 7.168 | 7.180 | 43.363 | 43.360 | 1:26.723 |
| 13 | Alexander Ferlazzo | AUS | 2 | 7.169 | 7.186 | 43.508 | 43.409 | 1:26.917 |
| 14 | Svante Kohala | SWE | 3 | 7.236 | 7.238 | 43.443 | 43.574 | 1:27.017 |
| 15 | Jozef Ninis | SVK | 4 | 7.309 | 7.313 | 43.560 | 43.531 | 1:27.091 |
| 16 | Anton Dukach | UKR | 1 | 7.223 | 7.209 | 43.664 | 43.562 | 1:27.226 |
| 17 | Andriy Mandziy | UKR | 19 | 7.275 | 7.252 | 43.661 | 43.547 | 1:27.208 |
| 18 | Alex Gufler | ITA | 22 | 7.251 | 7.242 | 43.760 | 43.544 | 1:27.304 |
| 19 | Jonathan Gustafson | USA | 7 | 7.201 | 7.100 | 43.693 | 43.641 | 1:27.334 |
| 20 | Marian Skupek | SVK | 18 | 7.301 | 7.274 | 43.966 | 43.729 | 1:27.695 |
| 21 | Eduard-Mihai Craciun | ROU | 23 | 7.335 | 7.349 | 44.111 | 44.079 | 1:28.190 |
| 22 | Valentin Cretu | ROU | 21 | 7.298 | 7.274 | 44.144 | 44.202 | 1:28.346 |
| 23 | Hunter Harris | USA | 20 | 7.352 | 7.339 | 44.414 | 44.294 | 1:28.708 |
| 24 | Mirza Nikolajev | BIH | 24 | 7.283 | 7.295 | 45.103 | 44.537 | 1:29.640 |
| 25 | Jing Li | CHN | 25 | 7.427 | 7.471 | 44.944 | 44.822 | 1:29.766 |
| 26 | Zhenyu Bao | CHN | 26 | 7.618 | 7.623 | 45.118 | 45.109 | 1:30.227 |
| 27 | Shaonan Liu | CHN | 27 | 7.353 | 7.373 | 45.128 | 45.146 | 1:30.274 |
