From Igls, AUT
(December 7, 2024) – Latvia’s Martins Bots and Roberts Plume slid to their first race of the 2024/2025 FIL World Cup season on Saturday as they held off the previous week’s winners to strike gold.
Germany’s Toni Eggert and Florian Müller slid to the lead from the fifth starting spot in the first heat, a lead they held for ten sleds until the Latvian duo took their turn on the newly reconfigured Igls track. Bots and Plume’s lead stood for the remainder of the first heat, with only Eggert and Müller and Austrians Thomas Steu and Wolfgang Kindl able to get within a tenth of a second.
In the second heat Italy’s Ivan Nagler and Fabian Malleier set a one-run time that would have been good enough for fourth in the first heat and was enough to move them up a spot from fifth in to what would eventually be fourth place.
Next were Steu and Kindl. On home ice they were quick off and throughout the bulk of their they seemed to have a possible gold medal run going. But late in their run they hit the wall and had a big skid that, while still a medal run, was enough to cost them a silver or gold.
Eggert and Müller, the previous week’s winner, also were quick off the top. Some small mistakes toward the bottom of their run also weren’t enough to cost them a spot but likely kept them from seriously contending for gold.
Finally it was Bots and Plume’s turn for their second run. Their second effort, like their first, was the fastest of the heat and more than enough to win gold, with a .179 second margin of victory over the previous week’s winners, Eggert and Müller.
Steu and Kindl took bronze, with Nagler and Malleier fourth and Austria’s Yannick Müller and Armin Frauscher fifth. Tobias Wendl and Tobias Arlt rounded out the top six.
Latvian sliding sport fans always travel well, and there was a big crowd on hand for Bots and Plume’s victory. The duo credited those fans in part for their gold.
“It’s almost like a home race,” Roberts Plume told FIL TV after the race. “Martins’ family is here, and I think they gave us some extra speed!”
For Eggert and Müller, a silver medal was about what they were expecting out of the race.
“I think we can be really, really happy with a silver medal,” said Eggert. “We had a few strange curves, but I think we got the maximum of what was possible today.”
Despite the race being in in Igls, the new doubles start ramp added some extra length and speed to the track. That, according to Wolfgang Kindl, took away some of the “home track advantage” that the Austrians usually enjoy.
“We’re glad to be on the podium with these two runs,” Kindl told FIL TV. “We had problems all week, it wasn’t really a home track advantage because of the new start height.”
The United States had three sleds in the race, led by the young duo of Marcus Mueller and Ansel Haugsjaa. They slid to a seventh place finish, three spots ahead of Olympians Zack Digregorio and Sean Hollander, who finished tenth.
Dana Kellogg and Frank Ike finished the first heat in seventh place, just ahead of Wendl and Arlt. But on their second start Kellogg dislocated his shoulder as he pulled off the top. The duo tipped their sled over soon thereafter to get the sled stopped and get the team off of the track, and were credited with a DNF.
Canadians Devin Wardrope and Cole Zajanski slid to a 13th place finish to round out the North American effort in Igls.
Two races into the FIL World Cup season, Latvia’s Bots and Plume and Germany’s Eggert and Müller are tied in the season’s standings. Steu and Kindl are third, with Wendl and Arlt and Müller and Frauscher rounding out the top five.
Results:
| Pos | Name | Nation | Bib | Start 1 | Start 2 | Run 1 | Run 2 | Total |
| 1 | Bots / Plume | LAT | 15 | 9.182 | 9.170 | 46.151 | 46.242 | 1:32.393 |
| 2 | Eggert / Müller | GER | 5 | 9.143 | 9.156 | 46.227 | 46.345 | 1:32.572 |
| 3 | Steu / Kindl | AUT | 14 | 9.215 | 9.200 | 46.228 | 46.454 | 1:32.682 |
| 4 | Nagler / Malleier | ITA | 2 | 9.166 | 9.154 | 46.490 | 46.246 | 1:32.736 |
| 5 | Müller / Frauscher | AUT | 7 | 9.176 | 9.179 | 46.284 | 46.465 | 1:32.749 |
| 6 | Wendl / Arlt | GER | 11 | 9.153 | 9.159 | 46.566 | 46.334 | 1:32.900 |
| 7 | Mueller / Haugsjaa | USA | 3 | 9.258 | 9.257 | 46.491 | 46.559 | 1:33.050 |
| 8 | Rieder / Kainzwaldner | ITA | 8 | 9.216 | 9.246 | 46.642 | 46.579 | 1:33.221 |
| 9 | Wardrope / Zajanski | CAN | 16 | 9.274 | 9.267 | 47.056 | 46.880 | 1:33.396 |
| 10 | Orlamünder / Gubitz | GER | 12 | 9.172 | 9.202 | 46.898 | 46.501 | 1:33.399 |
| 11 | Digregorio / Hollander | USA | 4 | 9.213 | 9.226 | 46.693 | 46.753 | 1:33.446 |
| 12 | Vavercak / Zmij | SVK | 6 | 9.224 | 9.216 | 46.881 | 46.746 | 1:33.627 |
| 13 | Chmielewski / Kowalewski | POL | 1 | 9.230 | 9.218 | 46.728 | 46.940 | 1:33.668 |
| 14 | Gitlan / Serban | ROU | 18 | 9.280 | 9.325 | 47.326 | 47.221 | 1:34.547 |
| 15 | Jubayi / Hou | CHN | 17 | 9.350 | 9.324 | 47.362 | 47.247 | 1:34.609 |
| 16 | Handaric / Motzca | ROU | 19 | 9.371 | 9.408 | 47.270 | 47.356 | 1:34.626 |
| 17 | Hoi / Kachmar | UKR | 20 | 9.427 | 9.417 | 47.454 | 47.265 | 1:34.719 |
| 18 | Sevics-Mikelsevics / Krasts | LAT | 10 | 9.207 | 48.108 | |||
| 19 | Gatt / Schöpf | AUT | 13 | 9.185 | 49.240 | |||
| DNF | Kellogg / Ike | USA | 9 | 9.265 | 10.549 | 46.552 | DNF |