Tomass Dukurs Leads Dukurs 1-2 in Sigulda

From Sigulda, LAT

(December 31, 2021) – Tomass Dukurs edged out younger brother Martins in the final race of 2021, winning by .06 to take gold on his home track in Sigulda.

The elder Dukurs came into the second heat in third place, behind his younger brother and Seunggi Jung, who sat first and second respectively. Jung’s second run was a decent run, but not enough to hold back Tomass. That left Martins to go.

Very rarely does Martins Dukurs make a mistake. Even more rare is it that the mistake happens in Sigulda. But Dukurs popped the groove at the start and did his very best to drive back, and while it seemed as though gold was completely lost, Martins slid all the way back to within .06 but couldn’t quite edge Tomass for gold.

The gold was Tomass Dukurs’s second, and first in over 15 years. The bronze for Jung was also his first. Between them, Martins Dukurs’s silver was his 21st.

Evgeniy Rukosuev was the top-finishing Russian in fourth place, just ahead of Germany’s Alexander Gassner in fifth. Ukraine’s Vladyslav Heraskevych put down the second quickest run of the race in the second heat and moved up from 13th after the first run to finish sixth, a career best.

Canada’s men didn’t come into the race with very much experience on the track in Sigulda with each of their two men with one race each under their belt. Blake Enzie was able to make the second run and finish in 20th. Teammate Evan Neufeldt finished tied for 24th.

The United States’ men’s skeleton program continued to struggle. Austin Florian finished tied for 24th with Neufeldt after landing a top draw. Andrew Blaser finished 28th.

Matt Weston led the way for Great Britain with a tenth place effort, a tenth out of a tie for eighth. Behind Weston the British men struggled to find speed in Latvia. Marcus Wyatt finished 18th despite what was an otherwise very clean run. Craig Thompson finished 30th from the first starting spot.

With two races to go in the World Cup season Christopher Grotheer still leads the points standings, 22 points ahead of Martins Dukurs, while Axel Jungk sits third.

Results:

Pos	Name	Nation	Bib	Start 1	Start 2	Run 1	Run 2	Total
1	Tomass Dukurs	LAT	10	4.62	4.60	50.67	50.69	1:41.36
2	Martins Dukurs	LAT	8	4.54	4.57	50.31	51.11	1:41.42
3	Seunggi Jung	KOR	4	4.50	4.50	50.64	51.09	1:41.73
4	Evgeniy Rukosuev	RUS	16	4.57	4.57	50.92	50.82	1:41.74
5	Alexander Gassner	GER	11	4.69	4.69	50.94	50.96	1:41.90
6	Vladyslav Heraskevych	UKR	21	4.83	4.72	51.30	50.71	1:42.01
7	Nikita Tregubov	RUS	6	4.64	4.64	50.84	51.21	1:42.05
8	Vladislav Semenov	RUS	13	4.66	4.65	51.06	51.07	1:42.13
8	Christopher Grotheer	GER	12	4.61	4.59	51.03	51.10	1:42.13
10	Matt Weston	GBR	9	4.54	4.54	51.01	51.22	1:42.23
11	Mattia Gaspari	ITA	22	4.76	4.73	51.40	51.03	1:42.43
12	Axel Jungk	GER	5	4.65	4.62	51.28	51.27	1:42.55
13	Jisoo Kim	KOR	17	4.52	4.54	51.63	50.95	1:42.58
14	Wengang Yan	CHN	19	4.64	4.65	51.38	51.25	1:42.63
15	Amedeo Bagnis	ITA	18	4.62	4.58	51.33	51.42	1:42.75
16	Samuel Maier	AUT	14	4.84	4.84	51.34	51.45	1:42.79
17	Marcus Wyatt	GBR	20	4.60	4.58	51.61	51.33	1:42.94
18	Sungbin Yun	KOR	15	4.57	0.21	51.03	51.91	1:42.94
19	Zheng Yin	CHN	24	4.51	4.43	51.26	51.76	1:43.02
20	Blake Enzie	CAN	27	4.71	4.73	51.59	51.56	1:43.15
21	Wenqiang Geng	CHN	7	4.73		51.71
22	Ronald Auderset	SUI	26	4.66		51.78
23	Rin Kinoshita	JPN	30	4.55		51.79
24	Austin Florian	USA	3	4.57		51.97
24	Evan Neufeldt	CAN	28	4.78		51.97
26	Alexander Schlintner	AUT	23	4.71		52.02
27	Basil Sieber	SUI	2	4.85		52.16
28	Andrew Blaser	USA	25	4.71		52.19
29	Lucas Defayet	FRA	29	4.86		52.36
30	Craig Thompson	GBR	1	4.53		52.58
31	Mihail Enache	ROU	31	4.74		52.62