From Igls, AUT
(November 19, 2021) – The more things change, they more they stay the same.
In what will be another crazy IBSF World Cup season leading into the 2022 Olympic Games, Alexander Tretiakov and Martins Dukurs showed once again that they are going to be the forces to be reckoned with.
Dukurs led a packed field of medal contenders after one heat, with Christopher Grotheer, Tretiakov, Sungbin Yun, and Axel Jungk all within .11 of the lead. On the second run athletes jockeyed for position, with Jungk moving up a spot and Yun falling back.
Tretiakov came up with just two sleds to go and set the fast downtime of the race, a 52.33. Grotheer was next, and while he was .23 quicker than his first run it wasn’t enough to stay ahead the Russian.
That left Martins Dukurs. The Latvian pushed .03 quicker than his first start off the top, and was .14 quicker at the bottom, but again it wasn’t enough to catch Tretiakov, which gave Tretiakov the win to open the season.
Dukurs finished with a silver medal, while Grother finished with a bronze.
Germany’s Axel Jungk, who has spent the better part of two seasons battling injury, rallied to finish fourth, just ahead of Russia’s Vladislav Semenov in fifth. Sungbin Yun, who was sliding on a backup sled due to his sled not arriving from China in time, finished sixth.
South Korea’s sleds didn’t get to Austria in time for the season opener in Igls.
Great Britain’s men struggled to find speed on a track they’ve been strong on as of late. Matt Weston was their top finisher in 13th place, up from 17th in the first heat. Marcus Wyatt finished just .06 back in a tie for 14th place with Italy’s Amedeo Bagnis.
Craig Thompson missed out on the second heat by only .07 and finished 21st.
It was a tough start to the World Cup season for the North Americans, with none of them making the second heat. Austin Florian led the way with a 23rd place finish, one spot ahead of John Daly. Daly, making his first World Cup start in over three years, had the last starting spot in the field and slid on what felt like some pretty tough ice.
Canada’s Mark Lynch finished one spot behind Daly in 25th.
Results:
| Pos | Name | Nation | Bib | Start 1 | Start 2 | Run 1 | Run 2 | Total |
| 1 | Alexander Tretiakov | RUS | 9 | 4.93 | 4.84 | 52.74 | 52.33 | 1:45.07 |
| 2 | Martins Dukurs | LAT | 13 | 4.90 | 4.87 | 52.64 | 52.50 | 1:45.14 |
| 3 | Christopher Grotheer | GER | 15 | 5.00 | 4.97 | 52.73 | 52.50 | 1:45.23 |
| 4 | Axel Jungk | GER | 7 | 5.00 | 4.98 | 52.75 | 52.66 | 1:45.41 |
| 5 | Vladislav Semenov | RUS | 2 | 4.99 | 4.91 | 52.89 | 52.57 | 1:45.46 |
| 6 | Sungbin Yun | KOR | 10 | 4.89 | 4.89 | 52.74 | 52.82 | 1:45.56 |
| 7 | Seunggi Jung | KOR | 14 | 4.87 | 4.81 | 52.87 | 52.72 | 1:45.59 |
| 8 | Alexander Gassner | GER | 12 | 5.05 | 5.04 | 52.89 | 52.75 | 1:45.64 |
| 9 | Jisoo Kim | KOR | 4 | 4.84 | 4.84 | 52.96 | 52.72 | 1:45.68 |
| 10 | Nikita Tregubov | RUS | 6 | 4.96 | 4.93 | 53.11 | 52.61 | 1:45.72 |
| 11 | Samuel Maier | AUT | 20 | 5.10 | 5.07 | 52.94 | 52.80 | 1:45.74 |
| 12 | Wenqiang Geng | CHN | 5 | 5.05 | 5.00 | 53.04 | 52.74 | 1:45.78 |
| 13 | Matt Weston | GBR | 24 | 4.90 | 4.87 | 53.09 | 52.70 | 1:45.79 |
| 14 | Marcus Wyatt | GBR | 8 | 4.92 | 4.92 | 53.08 | 52.70 | 1:45.85 |
| 14 | Amedeo Bagnis | ITA | 19 | 4.91 | 4.89 | 52.99 | 52.86 | 1:45.85 |
| 16 | Tomass Dukurs | LAT | 11 | 5.02 | 4.99 | 53.05 | 52.81 | 1:45.86 |
| 17 | Wengang Yan | CHN | 16 | 4.98 | 4.93 | 52.94 | 52.96 | 1:45.90 |
| 18 | Mattia Gaspari | ITA | 23 | 4.99 | 5.00 | 53.18 | 52.85 | 1:46.03 |
| 19 | Wenhao Chen | CHN | 21 | 4.86 | 4.87 | 53.04 | 53.07 | 1:46.11 |
| 20 | Ronald Auderset | SUI | 28 | 4.89 | 4.92 | 53.22 | 53.08 | 1:46.30 |
| 21 | Craig Thompson | GBR | 18 | 4.89 | 53.29 | |||
| 22 | Vladyslav Heraskevych | UKR | 17 | 5.09 | 53.38 | |||
| 23 | Austin Florian | USA | 22 | 4.96 | 53.45 | |||
| 24 | John Daly | USA | 29 | 5.06 | 53.60 | |||
| 25 | Mark Lynch | CAN | 25 | 5.11 | 53.62 | |||
| 26 | Florian Auer | AUT | 1 | 5.08 | 53.64 | |||
| 27 | Basil Sieber | SUI | 27 | 5.11 | 53.69 | |||
| 28 | Mihail Enache | ROU | 26 | 5.04 | 53.98 | |||
| 29 | Elliot Brown | AUS | 3 | 5.39 | 54.43 |
