From Winterberg, GER
(December 10, 2021) – Alexander Tretiakov took full advantage of fast ice in Winterberg to both win gold and break a six year old track record on Friday.
The Russian was close to the track record time of 55.01 (Martins Dukurs, 2015) in the first heat, missing it by just .04 with a 55.55. His second run looked to be a little bumper, but it was fast enough to drop the record by .01 to a 55.50. Those two runs were enough to slide him into his second gold medal of the season.
Behind Tretiakov, only Axel Jungk was close, with matching 55.67 runs in both heats to win a silver medal. Jungk, coming back from injury a year prior, was .07 quicker in his second start but couldn’t match Tretiakov’s pace.
Christopher Grotheer, the World Cup point leader coming into the day’s racing moved up from sixth to into the medals with a strong second run to win bronze. Latvia’s Martins Dukurs made a big move from eighth to finish fourth. It was only the third time in his career he’d missed a podium in Winterberg.
Germany’s Alexander Gassner also moved up, going from seventh to fifth in the second heat, while Nikita Tregubov fell from third to sixth.
Grotheer’s bronze medal kept him atop the World Cup leaderboard, .24 points ahead of Jungk, while Tretiakov, Dukurs, and Nikita Tregubov round out the top five.
Matt Weston led the way for Great Britain with an 11th place, tied with Korea’s Seunggi Jung. Teammate Craig Thompson finished 16th, while Marcus Wyatt had a clean run that had no speed and finished 25th.
It was a disappointing start to the weekend for the North Americans competing in Winterberg. The United States’ John Daly missed the cut for the second run by only .01 and finished 21st. Canadians Mark Lynch and Kyle Murray tied for 27th, while American Austin Florian popped the groove at the start, skidded sideways, and finished 30th.
Results:
| Pos | Name | Nation | Bib | Start 1 | Start 2 | Run 1 | Run 2 | Total |
| 1 | Alexander Tretiakov | RUS | 6 | 4.82 | 4.81 | 55.55 | 55.50 | 1:51.05 |
| 2 | Axel Jungk | GER | 5 | 4.94 | 4.87 | 55.67 | 55.67 | 1:51.34 |
| 3 | Christopher Grotheer | GER | 10 | 4.91 | 4.88 | 55.94 | 55.70 | 1:51.64 |
| 4 | Martins Dukurs | LAT | 8 | 4.87 | 4.85 | 55.97 | 55.73 | 1:51.70 |
| 5 | Alexander Gassner | GER | 13 | 4.96 | 4.93 | 55.96 | 55.76 | 1:51.72 |
| 6 | Nikita Tregubov | RUS | 4 | 4.87 | 4.85 | 55.85 | 55.88 | 1:51.73 |
| 7 | Tomass Dukurs | LAT | 17 | 4.93 | 4.92 | 56.05 | 55.90 | 1:51.95 |
| 8 | Wenqiang Geng | CHN | 11 | 4.92 | 4.92 | 55.92 | 56.06 | 1:51.98 |
| 9 | Wengang Yan | CHN | 22 | 4.94 | 4.91 | 56.16 | 55.88 | 1:52.04 |
| 10 | Sungbin Yun | KOR | 18 | 4.83 | 4.84 | 56.10 | 55.94 | 1:52.04 |
| 11 | Matt Weston | GBR | 7 | 4.86 | 4.84 | 56.21 | 55.95 | 1:52.16 |
| 11 | Seunggi Jung | Kor | 12 | 4.84 | 4.85 | 55.89 | 56.27 | 1:52.16 |
| 13 | Vladislav Semenov | RUS | 9 | 4.94 | 4.90 | 56.23 | 55.97 | 1:52.20 |
| 14 | Jisoo Kim | KOR | 15 | 4.79 | 4.76 | 56.19 | 56.04 | 1:52.23 |
| 15 | Amedeo Bagnis | ITA | 21 | 4.89 | 4.84 | 56.25 | 56.03 | 1:52.28 |
| 16 | Craig Thompson | GBR | 25 | 4.82 | 4.78 | 56.30 | 56.11 | 1:52.41 |
| 17 | Ronald Auderset | SUI | 2 | 4.92 | 4.87 | 56.42 | 56.13 | 1:52.55 |
| 18 | Wenhao Chen | CHN | 20 | 4.81 | 4.84 | 56.56 | 56.34 | 1:52.90 |
| 19 | Vladyslav Heraskevych | UKR | 23 | 5.03 | 4.99 | 56.65 | 56.37 | 1:53.02 |
| 20 | Samuel Maier | AUT | 16 | 5.09 | 5.18 | 56.48 | 56.58 | 1:53.06 |
| 21 | John Daly | USA | 1 | 5.07 | 56.66 | |||
| 22 | Rin Kinoshita | JPN | 27 | 4.81 | 56.68 | |||
| 23 | Mihail Enache | ROU | 28 | 4.97 | 56.69 | |||
| 24 | Florian Auer | AUT | 29 | 5.05 | 56.71 | |||
| 25 | Marcus Wyatt | GBR | 14 | 4.86 | 56.73 | |||
| 26 | Mattia Gaspari | ITA | 19 | 4.99 | 56.74 | |||
| 27 | Mark Lynch | CAN | 3 | 5.12 | 56.88 | |||
| 27 | Kyle Murray | CAN | 24 | 5.06 | 56.88 | |||
| 29 | Austin Florian | USA | 26 | 5.10 | 58.42 | |||
| 30 | Basil Sieber | SUI | 30 | 5.10 | 57.11 |
