From Lillehammer, NOR
(November 30, 2024) – Toni Eggert couldn’t stay off the ice. A year removed from his first season not racing on the FIL he found himself back on a sled. Longtime teammate Sascha Benecken stayed away, so he teamed up with Florian Müller, and in their first World Cup race together they broke a track record and won gold.
The duo of Eggert and Müller made it down the Norwegian track in 46.807 in the first heat, over a tenth ahead of anyone else and one of only two teams under 47 seconds. That was enough for a .125 second lead over Martins Bots and Roberts Plume.
In the second heat neither the Latvians nor the Germans had the same pace as their first effort. Bots and Plume slid to the lead, ahead of anyone else. Eggert and Müller, in their first World Cup race together, answered the challenge by the Latvians and were .007 quicker than them in the second heat on their way to gold.
The gold medal was the 55th for Eggert, and the first for Müller.
Eggert: “This was a great race for us,” Eggert said of his victory. “I couldn’t dream that it would have gone that well. We still have a lot of work to do, and every day we feel some improvement.”
The Latvians were a bit disappointed in their finish, but as Roberts Plume said, were relatively content with a silver medal.
“Before the season we aimed to be winning races,” he said. “Second place is nice, but we thought we could do more. I hope we do better next race, but it’s still reason to celebrate”
Juri Gatt and Riccardo Schöpf sat third after the first heat, part of a pack of five teams all within .052 of each other in a battle for the third and final medal. But it was their teammates Thomas Steu and Wolfgang Kindl who made the big jump from seventh up into the final podium spot with a bronze medal, .035 ahead of Gatt and Schöpf.
Gatt and Schöpf took fourth, with Tobias Wendl and Tobias Arlt moving up from sixth to fifth in the second heat. That was at the expense of teammates Hannes Orlamünder and Paul Gubitz, who fell from fourth to sixth.
Dana Kellogg and Frank Ike were the top American team in eighth place with two consistent runs. Zack Digregorio and Sean Hollander had a big skid in their second run and that dropped them from fifth to tenth.
Marcus Muller and Ansel Haugsjaa crashed in their first run but put down a really fast second run. They weren’t able to move up, but the American duo had the fastest time of the second heat on their way to an 18th place finish.
Canadians Devin Wardrope and Cole Zajanski slid to a 13th place finish in the season opener.
Results:
| Pos | Name | Nation | Bib | Start 1 | Start 2 | Run 1 | Run 2 | Total |
| 1 | Eggert / Müller | GER | 2 | 2.273 | 2.277 | 46.807 | 47.039 | 1:33.846 |
| 2 | Bots / Plume | LAT | 14 | 2.299 | 2.296 | 46.932 | 47.046 | 1:33.978 |
| 3 | Steu / Kindl | AUT | 15 | 2.331 | 2.326 | 47.060 | 47.010 | 1:34.070 |
| 4 | Gatt / Schöpf | AUT | 10 | 2.294 | 2.301 | 47.008 | 47.097 | 1:34.105 |
| 5 | Wendl / Arlt | GER | 13 | 2.270 | 2.268 | 47.044 | 47.078 | 1:34.122 |
| 6 | Orlamünder / Gubitz | GER | 11 | 2.309 | 2.308 | 47.027 | 47.146 | 1:34.173 |
| 7 | Müller / Frauscher | AUT | 5 | 2.274 | 2.283 | 47.372 | 46.984 | 1:34.356 |
| 8 | Kellogg / Ike | USA | 9 | 2.349 | 2.328 | 47.179 | 47.240 | 1:34.419 |
| 9 | Sevics-Mikelsevics / Krasts | LAT | 12 | 2.282 | 2.293 | 47.267 | 47.315 | 1:34.582 |
| 10 | Digregorio / Hollander | USA | 8 | 2.293 | 2.299 | 47.035 | 47.600 | 1:34.635 |
| 11 | Nagler / Malleier | ITA | 1 | 2.283 | 2.324 | 47.527 | 47.115 | 1:34.642 |
| 12 | Chmielewski / Kowalewski | POL | 17 | 2.297 | 2.303 | 47.360 | 47.289 | 1:34.649 |
| 13 | Wardrope / Zajanski | CAN | 16 | 2.313 | 2.321 | 47.378 | 47.352 | 1:34.730 |
| 14 | Rieder / Kainzwaldner | ITA | 4 | 2.305 | 2.312 | 47.503 | 47.354 | 1:34.857 |
| 15 | Vavercak / Zmij | SVK | 7 | 2.290 | 2.292 | 47.977 | 48.243 | 1:36.220 |
| 16 | Hoi / Kachmar | UKR | 18 | 2.366 | 2.364 | 48.303 | 48.008 | 1:36.311 |
| 17 | Handaric / Motzca | ROU | 19 | 2.338 | 2.344 | 48.445 | 48.136 | 1:36.581 |
| 18 | Mueller / Haugsjaa | USA | 3 | 2.306 | 2.313 | 53.513 | 46.918 | 1:40.431 |
| DNF | Jubayi / Hou | CHN | 6 | 2.332 | DNF | |||
| DNS | Gitlan / Serban | ROU | 20 | DNS |