From Sigulda, LAT
(February 25, 2024) – It took a little longer than he’s used to, but Felix Loch finally won his first gold of the 2023/2024 FIL World Cup season with a victory in Sigulda.
Loch trailed Latvia’s Kristers Aparjods on Aparjods’s home ice after the first heat. Behind them, the rest of the field at best struggled to find speed while many couldn’t put two clean runs together.
The battle for the gold saw Loch put down the quickest run of the competition in his second run to take the lead from teammate Max Langenhan. Aparjods, the final slider of the contenders, pulled off just ahead of Loch, and matched the German most of the way down. However, in the finishing curve, Aparjods fell back slightly, and couldn’t find the speed to overcome that deficit as he slid to a second place finish, only .059 back behind Loch.
Loch’s gold was his third medal of an otherwise relatively difficult season for the German. For Aparjods, the silver medal was his fifth medal of the season.
Behind them, Max Langenhan picked off David Gleirscher to take third place in the race, a tenth ahead of Gleirscher.
Wolfgang Kindl finished fifth, while Latvia’s Gints Berzins moved up from seventh to sixth with his second run.
Ukraine had its best race in recent memory. Anton Dukach finished seventh and Andriy Mandziy ninth, the first time Ukraine’s had two sliders in the top ten in at least a decade.
Alex Ferlazzo wedged his way in between the two Ukrainian’s in eighth for World Cup season best finish.
USA’s Jonny Gustafson finished 12th, one spot ahead of teammate Tucker West in 13th.
The race was a wild one. Ferlazzo had a wall hit and big skid but still managed to finish sixth. Throughout the field, sliders had a difficult time with the Latvian track. Austria’s Jonas Müller, second in the points coming into the event, finished 24th after a crash in the second run dropped him from tenth after the first heat.
With his bronze medal and Müller’s 24th place finish, Max Langenhan clinched the overall title two races early. Müller is second still, but now has Kristers Aparjods in third to contend with. Felix Loch is fourth, and David Gleirscher fifth.
Results:
| Pos | Name | Nation | Bib | Start 1 | Start 2 | Run 1 | Run 2 | Total |
| 1 | Felix Loch | GER | 13 | 4.581 | 4.959 | 47.887 | 47.763 | 1:35.650 |
| 2 | Kristers Aparjods | LAT | 12 | 4.619 | 4.606 | 47.841 | 47.868 | 1:35.709 |
| 3 | Max Langenhan | GER | 17 | 4.598 | 4.627 | 48.060 | 47.902 | 1:35.962 |
| 4 | David Gleirscher | AUT | 16 | 4.674 | 4.660 | 47.952 | 48.121 | 1:36.073 |
| 5 | Wolfgang Kindl | AUT | 14 | 4.662 | 4.675 | 48.167 | 47.925 | 1:36.092 |
| 6 | Gints Berzins | LAT | 5 | 4.615 | 4.619 | 48.207 | 48.017 | 1:36.224 |
| 7 | Anton Dukach | UKR | 3 | 4.650 | 4.638 | 48.373 | 48.093 | 1:36.466 |
| 8 | Alexander Ferlazzo | AUS | 1 | 4.603 | 4.627 | 48.557 | 48.023 | 1:36.580 |
| 9 | Andriy Mandziy | UKR | 30 | 4.654 | 4.645 | 48.564 | 48.166 | 1:36.730 |
| 10 | Svante Kohala | SWE | 4 | 4.677 | 4.722 | 48.480 | 48.341 | 1:36.821 |
| 11 | Nico Gleirscher | AUT | 11 | 4.616 | 4.642 | 48.848 | 48.118 | 1:36.966 |
| 12 | Jonathan Gustafson | USA | 6 | 4.638 | 4.621 | 48.730 | 48.272 | 1:37.002 |
| 13 | Tucker West | USA | 9 | 4.588 | 4.580 | 48.100 | 48.933 | 1:37.033 |
| 14 | Alex Gufler | ITA | 29 | 4.661 | 4.672 | 48.694 | 48.452 | 1:37.146 |
| 15 | Dominik Fischnaller | ITA | 8 | 4.634 | 4.639 | 48.400 | 48.797 | 1:37.197 |
| 16 | Valentin Cretu | ROU | 24 | 4.735 | 4.709 | 48.905 | 48.421 | 1:37.326 |
| 17 | Leon Felderer | ITA | 11 | 4.646 | 4.628 | 49.070 | 48.380 | 1:37.450 |
| 18 | Roberts Dreimanis | LAT | 21 | 4.758 | 4.763 | 49.524 | 49.250 | 1:38.774 |
| 19 | Eduard-Mihai Craciun | ROU | 31 | 4.700 | 4.696 | 50.074 | 49.721 | 1:39.795 |
| 20 | Danyil Martsinovskyi | UKR | 26 | 4.751 | 4.736 | 51.388 | 49.066 | 1:40.454 |
| 21 | Kaspars Rinks | LAT | 19 | 4.692 | 4.962 | 52.089 | 49.128 | 1:41.217 |
| 22 | Walter Vikström | FIN | 28 | 4.855 | 4.849 | 51.956 | 52.099 | 1:44.055 |
| 23 | Shaonan Liu | CHN | 25 | 4.767 | 4.749 | 50.832 | 61.761 | 1:52.593 |
| 24 | Jonas Müller | AUT | 15 | 4.643 | 4.642 | 48.458 | 66.094 | 1:54.552 |
| 25 | Luka Mtchedliani | GEO | 27 | 4.780 | 4.771 | 51.387 | 65.310 | 1:56.697 |
| 26 | Marian Skupek | SVK | 18 | 4.673 | 4.710 | 76.920 | 49.360 | 2:06.280 |
| 27 | Rasmus Moberg | SWE | 22 | 4.742 | 4.714 | 77.402 | 51.973 | 2:09.375 |
| DNF | Zhenyu Bao | CHN | 20 | 4.876 | 4.834 | 49.826 | DNF | |
| DNF | Jozef Ninis | SVK | 2 | 4.724 | DNF | |||
| DNF | Timon Grancagnolo | GER | 7 | 4.724 | DNF | |||
| DSQ | Jing Li | CHN | 23 | DSQ |