From Yanqing, CHN
(November 20, 2021) – Toni Eggert & Sascha Benecken got off to a strong start of their 2021/2022 World Cup season, winning the season opener on the Olympic track in Yanqing.
The German duo set the two fastest times of the race on their way to a .2 second victory over Austrians Thomas Steu & Lorenz Koller and nearly a half second over Andris & Juris Sics in third.
The win for the Germans were the 47th World Cup gold medal in their careers.
In a sport that is timed to the thousandth of a second because of how close the races usually are, the race in Yanqing gave everyone some pretty wide splits. Yannick Müller & Armin Frauscher finished in fourth, but was behind bronze medalists Sics & Sics by nearly three tenths of a second, and were seven tenths of a second from the leaders.
Latvia’s Martins Bots & Roberts Plume finished fifth as the only other team within a second of Eggert & Benecken, while Robin Geuke & David Gamm rounded out the top six for Germany.
Canada’s younger doubles team Devin Wardrope & Cole Zajanski made a solid debut in Yanqing with an eighth place finish on the strength of matching 59.472 runs. Teammates Tristan Walker & Justin Snith finished 14th after some trouble in their second run knocked them out of the top ten.
The United States qualified two sleds in the World Cup race, but the team of Chris Mazdzer and Jayson Terdiman weren’t one of them. Mazdzer & Terdiman had trouble in their Nation’s Cup qualifying run and didn’t qualify for the World Cup race.
The American team of Chesterfield, Massachusetts’ Dana Kellogg and Duncan Segger finished 19th, while teammates Zachary Di Gregorio and Sean Hollander finished 23rd.
Results:
| Pos | Names | Nation | Bib | Start 1 | Start 2 | Run 1 | Run 2 | Total |
| 1 | Eggert / Benecken | GER | 23 | 7.065 | 7.059 | 58.793 | 58.817 | 1:57.610 |
| 2 | Steu / Koller | AUT | 20 | 7.120 | 7.095 | 58.879 | 58.940 | 1:57.819 |
| 3 | Sics / Sics | LAT | 19 | 7.091 | 7.120 | 58.991 | 59.048 | 1:58.039 |
| 4 | Müller / Frauscher | AUT | 18 | 7.144 | 7.138 | 59.110 | 59.203 | 1:58.313 |
| 5 | Bots / Plume | LAT | 21 | 7.096 | 7.095 | 59.278 | 59.200 | 1:58.478 |
| 6 | Geuke / Gamm | GER | 17 | 7.077 | 7.096 | 59.295 | 59.431 | 1:58.726 |
| 7 | Rieder / Kainzwaldner | ITA | 14 | 7.074 | 7.102 | 59.688 | 59.190 | 1:58.878 |
| 8 | Wardrope / Zajanski | CAN | 13 | 7.145 | 7.163 | 59.472 | 59.472 | 1:58.944 |
| 9 | Wendl / Arlt | GER | 24 | 7.035 | 7.052 | 59.337 | 59.716 | 1:59.053 |
| 10 | Denisev / Antonov | RUS | 16 | 7.114 | 7.175 | 59.731 | 59.475 | 1:59.206 |
| 11 | Nagler / Malleier | ITA | 15 | 7.095 | 7.140 | 59.671 | 59.536 | 1:59.207 |
| 12 | Rieder / Rastner | ITA | 22 | 7.060 | 7.072 | 59.510 | 59.770 | 1:59.280 |
| 13 | Maltcev / Khalilov | RUS | 9 | 7.154 | 7.172 | 59.665 | 59.698 | 1:59.363 |
| 14 | Walker / Snith | CAN | 12 | 7.056 | 7.061 | 59.547 | 59.884 | 1:59.431 |
| 15 | Bogdanov / Prokhorov | RUS | 10 | 7.084 | 7.114 | 59.746 | 59.747 | 1:59.493 |
| 16 | Chmielewski / Kowalewski | POL | 11 | 7.081 | 7.085 | 59.938 | 59.791 | 1:59.729 |
| 17 | Vavercak / Zmij | SVK | 7 | 7.165 | 7.145 | 60.031 | 59.872 | 1:59.903 |
| 18 | Park / Cho | KOR | 1 | 7.175 | 7.199 | 60.146 | 59.966 | 2:00.112 |
| 19 | Kellogg / Segger | USA | 8 | 7.227 | 7.277 | 59.955 | 60.181 | 2:00.136 |
| 20 | Stakhiv / Lysetskyi | UKR | 3 | 7.271 | 7.276 | 60.337 | 60.491 | 2:00.828 |
| 21 | Vejdelek / Pekny | CZE | 6 | 7.257 | 7.259 | 60.589 | 60.373 | 2:00.962 |
| 22 | Hoi / Levkovych | UKR | 4 | 7.227 | 7.260 | 60.695 | 60.395 | 2:01.090 |
| 23 | Di Gregorio / Hollander | USA | 5 | 7.138 | 7.202 | 60.789 | 60.643 | 2:01.432 |
| 24 | Gitlan / Serban | ROU | 2 | 7.234 | 7.210 | 60.767 | 60.680 | 2:01.447 |
