FIBT World Cup - Round 6 - Men's Skeleton

From St. Moritz, Switzerland

Martins Dukurs showed signs of being human last week in Königssee, finishing off the podium for the first time in recent memory. He appears ready to take his spot atop the podium back, putting down the only sub-69 second time.

Kiwi Ben Sandford and American Matthew Antoine are second and third, separated by only .01, but with entirely different runs. Antoine had a solid start and decent speed, Sandford had a slow start and picked up speed throughout his slide. Sandford is .85 behind Dukurs. Austrian Raphael Maier is only .05 behind Antoine. Just over a tenth separates Maier and fifth place Frank Rommel. Rommel, of course, won last week’s race in Königssee.

All six North Americans place into the second heat, with Americans John Daly and Kyle Tress having their best runs on the season, placing 7th and 12th. Canadians John Fairbairn, Michael Douglas and Eric Neilson sit 6th, 18th and 20th respectively.

Snow may have had an affect on the early sliders, as the bulk of the top 10 in the world currently place mid-pack in the 8th to 15th range.

Pos	Name	Nation	Draw	Run 1
1	Martins Dukurs	LAT	6	68.87
2	Ben Sandford	NZL	18	69.72
3	Matthew Antoine	USA	12	69.73
4	Raphael Maier	AUT	15	69.78
5	Frank Rommel	GER	8	69.90
6	John Fairbairn	CAN	14	70.04
7	John Daly	USA	21	70.17
8	Tomass Dukurs	LAT	2	70.29
9	Kristan Bromley	GBR	10	70.32
10	Adam Pengilly	GBR	11	70.34
11	Alexander Gassner	GER	4	70.37
12	Kyle Tress	USA	22	70.47
13	Matthias Guggenberger	AUT	3	70.55
14	Sergei Chudinov	RUS	7	70.56
15	Alexander Kroeckel	GER	1	70.59
16	Anze Setina	SLO	17	70.64
16	Michael Hoefer	SUI	23	70.64
18	Michael Douglas	CAN	5	70.68
19	Hiroatsu Takahashi	JPN	16	70.74
20	Eric Neilson	CAN	13	71.03
21	Giovanni Mulassano	ITA	27	71.23
22	Alexander Tretiakov	RUS	9	71.24
22	Maurizio Oioli	ITA	19	71.24
24	Ander Mirambell	ESP	24	71.51
25	Lukas Kummer	SUI	25	71.54
26	Silviu Alexan Mesarosi	ROU	26	71.61
27	Urs Vescoli	AUS	28	72.58
28	Shinsuke Tayama	JPN	20	72.86