Martins Dukurs Leads 2019 World Champs After 2 Heats

March 7, 2019 ken News, Skeleton News 0

From Whistler, CAN

(Mar. 7, 2019) – Martins Dukurs has won five IBSF World Championships in his illustrious career and has put himself in position to win a sixth title in Whistler.

Dukurs held a .07 second lead over Christopher Grotheer going into the second heat. Grotheer struggled on his second run, leaving the door open for Dukurs to pull well ahead of the field. Dukurs took advantage, putting down a flawless second run and setting a new track record (formerly 51.99 by Sungbin Yun) on his way to a .37 second lead over Russian Nikita Tregubov.

Martins Dukurs (Courtesy IBSF TV)

Behind Dukurs there’s a tight battle for the second position that’s currently held by Tregubov. Tomass Dukurs is just .09 behind the Russian in third, with Alexander Tretiakov only .05 behind Dukurs in fourth.

Christopher Grotheer’s second run was .29 slower than his first to drop him back to fifth, a tenth ahead of Olympic champion Sunbgin Yun in sixth.

The United States was led on day on by Austin Florian, who goes into the overnight in ninth place. Despite dropping from eighth in the first heat, the American World Championship rookie sits in good position to move up in the second day of sliding.  Greg West finished the first day in 18th and Kyle Brown 20th to round out the American effort. Both West and Brown were over a .3 seconds faster in their second runs.

Dave Greszczyszyn started the event with a disappointing first run, leaving him 17th. While the Canadian’s second run was cleaner, he was unable to move up in the standings and sits .01 behind Florian Auer of Austria. Greszczyszyn’s teammate Mark Lynch is PLACE after two runs.

Marcus Wyatt is the only British slider in the top 20, going into the overnight in tied for 14th with Vladyslav Heraskevych. Jerry Rice moved up into 21st from 22nd on his second run, while Jack Thomas will start Friday in 28th place.

Results:

Pos Name Nation Bib Start 1 Start 2 Run 1 Run 2 Total
1 Martins Dukurs LAT 6 4.52 4.50 52.15 51.91 1:44.06
2 Nikita Tregubov RUS 8 4.62 4.57 52.26 52.17 1:44.43
3 Tomass Dukurs LAT 10 4.60 4.58 52.36 52.18 1:44.54
4 Alexander Tretiakov RUS 7 4.48 4.50 52.47 52.12 1:44.59
5 Christohper Grotheer GER 18 4.61 4.64 52.22 52.51 1:44.73
6 Sungbin Yun KOR 5 4.53 4.57 52.34 52.49 1:44.83
7 Alexander Gassner GER 25 4.62 4.64 52.48 52.70 1:45.18
8 Seunggi Jung KOR 16 4.58 4.57 52.78 52.68 1:45.46
9 Austin Florian USA 17 4.57 4.56 52.64 52.85 1:45.49
10 Felix Keisinger GER 4 4.55 4.50 52.74 52.80 1:45.54
11 Axel Jungk GER 9 4.53 4.52 52.78 52.84 1:45.62
12 Wenqiang Geng CHN 24 4.75 4.73 53.04 52.61 1:45.65
13 Jisoo Kim KOR 22 4.57 4.56 52.87 52.83 1:45.70
14 Vladyslav Heraskevych UKR 12 4.75 4.74 52.94 52.81 1:45.75
14 Marcus Wyatt GBR 11 4.54 4.50 52.86 52.89 1:45.75
16 Florian Auer AUT 13 4.76 4.75 52.88 52.50 1:45.83
17 David Greszczyszyn CAN 14 4.69 4.67 53.09 52.75 1:45.84
18 Greg West USA 19 4.70 4.69 53.11 52.74 1:45.85
19 Wengang Yan CHN 23 4.69 4.63 53.16 52.86 1:46.02
20 Kyle Brown USA 20 4.65 4.62 53.21 52.85 1:46.06
21 Jerry Rice GBR 15 4.58 4.55 53.28 53.20 1:46.48
22 Vladislav Marchenkov RUS 21 4.70 4.71 53.25 53.38 1:46.63
23 Mark Lynch CAN 31 4.76 4.77 53.41 53.23 1:46.64
24 Brendan Doyle IRL 2 4.77 4.70 53.48 53.22 1:46.70
25 Joseph Luke Cecchini ITA 29 4.67 4.66 53.57 53.56 1:47.13
26 Jack Thomas GBR 27 4.61 4.61 53.55 53.71 1:47.26
27 Nicholas Timmings AUS 30 4.65 4.67 53.99 53.65 1:47.64
28 Ronald Auderset SUI 26 4.62 4.63 53.74 54.23 1:47.97
29 Joel Seligstein ISR 34 4.96 4.96 54.18 53.81 1:47.99
30 Alexander Hanssen NOR 28 4.57 4.57 53.89 54.12 1:48.01
31 Jeff Bauer LUX 33 4.89 4.90 54.95 54.50 1:49.45
32 Bram Zeegers NED 35 4.96 4.95 55.82 56.18 1:52.00
33 Joe Della Santina NZL 1 5.33 5.33 57.54 58.09 1:55.63
34 Reynaldo Arturo Sosa MEX 36 5.28 5.25 58.87 59.16 1:58.03
35 Todd Rodriguez Pfalzgraf PUR 3 5.47 5.52 57.94 64.72 2:02.66
DNS Ander Mirambell ESP 32 DNS