2015 FIBT World Championships – Men’s Skeleton – Runs 1 & 2

March 5, 2015 ken News, Skeleton News 0

From Winterberg, Germany

After the first two runs of the men’s skeleton World Championships, the two men one would expect to see at the top of the leaderboard are, in fact, atop the leaderboard.

Martins Dukurs came into the second run with a .3 advantage over defending world champion and Olympic champion Alexander Tretiakov, but a popped groove in the second heat cost the Latvian a couple tenths of a second over the big Russian. At the end of the second run, Dukurs held a .17 lead going into the second run.

“It’s the first time in my life I’ve popped a groove in a race,” said Martins Dukurs on his unfortunate start to Run 2.

The elder Dukurs brother, Tomass, will go into the third run in bronze medal position.  Tomass looks to score his first ever World Championship medal.  His downtime was equal to Christopher Grotheer of Germany, who sits fourth, just ahead of teammate Axel Jungk.

Matt Antoine chose start number one out of 34, and that may have cost him on his first run down. Antoine’s pair of runs were clean, but there was just no speed in his first run. A better second run puts the American in 11th. Kyle Tress put together two good runs for a 15th place position. Tress was a little late on the exit in a couple of corners, and could find some more speed in the second day of sliding.

The top-placing North American after the first day of sliding is Canadian Dave Greszczyszyn, who will go into Friday’s races in seventh place after two very consistent runs. Teammate Barrett Martineau will go into Friday just within the Top 20 in 18th place.  Evan Neufeldt picked up a few spots after his first run, moving into 22nd.  He’ll need a little help if he wants to break into the Top 20 for the fourth run Friday.

Dom Parsons will go into Friday as the top-placing British slider in a tie for eighth with German Kilian von Schleinitz. David Swift had a tough second run and dropped to 25th, .4 out of a fourth run at the moment, while Ed Smith continues to fight a leg injury, finishing the first day in 29th.

Results:

Pos Name Nation Bib Run 1 Run 2 Total
1 Martins Dukurs LAT 3 55.94 56.10 1:52.04
2 Alexander Tretiakov RUS 5 56.24 55.97 1:52.21
3 Thomass Dukurs LAT 2 56.45 56.28 1:52.73
4 Christopher Grotheer GER 9 56.66 56.28 1:52.94
5 Axel Jungk GER 4 56.54 56.44 1:52.98
6 Nikita Tregybov RUS 6 56.63 56.53 1:53.16
7 Dave Greszczyszyn CAN 11 56.71 56.76 1:53.47
8 Dominic Parsons GBR 7 56.79 56.72 1:53.51
8 Kilian von Schleinitz GER 13 56.72 56.79 1:53.51
10 Sungbin Yun KOR 8 56.77 56.77 1:53.54
11 Matthew Antoine USA 1 56.85 56.78 1:53.63
12 Pavel Kulikov RUS 14 56.96 56.75 1:53.71
13 Sergei Chudinov RUS 10 57.14 56.68 1:53.82
14 Hiroatsu Takahashi JPN 15 57.11 56.86 1:53.97
15 Kyle Tress USA 17 57.13 56.85 1:53.98
16 Martin Rosenberger GER 23 57.12 56.97 1:54.09
17 Marco Rohrer SUI 28 57.19 56.98 1:54.17
18 Barrett Martineau CAN 24 57.28 57.10 1:54.38
19 Matthias Guggenberger AUT 12 57.32 57.10 1:54.42
20 Raphael Maier AUT 16 57.32 57.14 1:54.46
21 Mattia Gaspari ITA 18 57.33 57.28 1:54.61
22 Evan Neufeldt CAN 21 57.53 57.29 1:54.82
23 Nicholas Timmings AUS 29 57.35 57.48 1:54.83
24 Hansin Lee KOR 27 57.44 57.40 1:54.84
25 David Swift GBR 19 57.30 57.56 1:54.86
26 Ronald Auderset SUI 26 57.59 57.54 1:55.13
27 Joseph Luke Cecchini ITA 20 57.60 57.54 1:55.14
28 John Farrow AUS 25 57.69 57.52 1:55.21
29 Ed Smith GBR 22 57.81 57.56 1:55.37
30 Dorin Velicu ROU 30 57.81 57.86 1:55.67
31 Rhys Thornbury NZL 32 57.76 57.95 1:55.71
32 Ander Mirambell ESP 31 57.85 57.87 1:55.72
33 Marin Bangiev BUL 34 58.94 59.04 1:57.98
34 Gustavo Henke BRA 33 59.93 61.27 2:01.20