From Sochi, RUS
(November 27, 2021) – The brothers Andris & Juris Sics won their first gold medal of the 2021/2022 FIL Luge World Cup season, beating out Russia’s Andrei Bogdanov & Iurii Prokhorov on their home ice for top honors.
Bogdanov & Prokhorov set the fast time in the first heat to open up a small lead over the Latvians. On the second run Sics & Sics were consistent, putting down what would be the second quickest run of the heat again. The Russians this time couldn’t answer, setting only the sixth quickest run of the heat to drop them to second.
The gold for the Latvians was their fifth in their career, with all five coming in the past three seasons. For Bogdanov & Prokhorov, the silver medal was their first as a team.
Germany and Russia rounded out six of the top seven places. Tobias Wendl & Tobias Arlt won bronze, just over a tenth back behind the Russians, while Toni Eggert and Sascha Benecken missed out on a medal in fourth, only .005 behind their German teammates.
Aleksandr Denisev & Vladislav Antonov finished fifth, just ahead of Robin Geuke & David Gamm in sixth.
Canada’s Tristan Walker & Justin Snith scored their first top eight finish in a couple of seasons, edging out Poland’s Chmielewski & Kowalewski for the position by just .003. Teammates Devin Wardrope & Cole Zajanski finished 14th.
Chris Mazdzer & Jayson Terdiman took a big step toward their Olympic qualification with an 11th place finish, while teammates Zach Di Gregorio & Sean Hollander had trouble at the start of their second run to finish 16th.
Results:
| Pos | Names | Nation | Bib | Start 1 | Start 2 | Run 1 | Run 2 | Total |
| 1 | Sics / Sics | LAT | 21 | 3.859 | 3.866 | 49.726 | 50.057 | 1:39.783 |
| 2 | Bogdanov / Prokhorov | RUS | 11 | 3.858 | 3.868 | 49.660 | 50.243 | 1:39.903 |
| 3 | Wendl / Arlt | GER | 13 | 3.821 | 3.834 | 49.854 | 50.158 | 1:40.012 |
| 4 | Eggert / Benecken | GER | 19 | 3.859 | 3.860 | 49.893 | 50.124 | 1:40.017 |
| 5 | Denisev / Antonov | RUS | 18 | 3.895 | 3.904 | 50.065 | 50.325 | 1:40.390 |
| 6 | Geueke / Gamm | GER | 14 | 3.886 | 3.904 | 50.065 | 50.588 | 1:40.653 |
| 7 | Maltcev / Khailiov | RUS | 12 | 3.882 | 3.894 | 50.572 | 50.219 | 1:40.791 |
| 8 | Walker / Snith | CAN | 1 | 3.867 | 3.884 | 50.414 | 50.511 | 1:40.925 |
| 9 | Chmielewski / Kowalewski | POL | 17 | 3.887 | 3.892 | 50.333 | 50.595 | 1:40.928 |
| 10 | Rieder / Rastner | ITA | 22 | 3.832 | 3.827 | 50.431 | 50.604 | 1:41.035 |
| 11 | Mazdzer / Terdiman | USA | 11 | 3.942 | 3.940 | 50.623 | 50.551 | 1:41.174 |
| 12 | Müller / Frauscher | AUT | 16 | 3.995 | 3.916 | 50.885 | 50.430 | 1:41.315 |
| 13 | Park / Cho | KOR | 8 | 3.954 | 3.965 | 50.630 | 50.885 | 1:41.515 |
| 14 | Wardrope / Zajanski | CAN | 2 | 3.935 | 3.955 | 50.978 | 50.740 | 1:41.718 |
| 15 | Gitlan / Serban | ROU | 7 | 3.977 | 3.959 | 51.093 | 50.940 | 1:42.033 |
| 16 | Di Gregorio / Hollander | USA | 16 | 3.945 | 4.025 | 50.734 | 51.835 | 1:42.569 |
| 17 | Stakhiv / Lysetskyi | UKR | 6 | 3.968 | 4.046 | 51.677 | 51.332 | 1:43.009 |
| 18 | Vejdelek / Pekny | CZE | 4 | 3.992 | 4.002 | 51.731 | 51.799 | 1:43.530 |
| 19 | Rieder / Kainzwaldner | ITA | 20 | 3.879 | 3.876 | 54.039 | 49.946 | 1:43.985 |
| 20 | Hoi / Levkovych | UKR | 3 | 4.047 | 4.040 | 51.801 | 56.571 | 1:48.372 |
| 21 | Nagler / Malleier | ITA | 15 | 3.893 | 3.869 | 59.436 | 50.969 | 1:50.405 |
| 22 | Gatt / Schöpf | AUT | 9 | 3.897 | 3.876 | 51.148 | 75.768 | 2:06.916 |
| DNF | Bots / Plume | LAT | 23 | 3.880 | 3.874 | 65.204 | DNF |
