From Altenberg, GER
(January 5, 2022) – Evgeniy Rukosuev held off a strong second slide from Felix Keisinger to win gold in the first of two Altenberg Intercontinental Cup races on the week.
The Russian held a .34 second lead over Germany’s Felix Seibel going into the second run, with Keisinger sitting back in fifth place. In the second heat Keisinger put down the quickest run of the race, over two full seconds faster than his first run. With that run, Keisinger leapfrogged Great Britain’s Matt Weston, China’s Wenhao Chen, and eventually Seibel to hold onto the lead with only Rukosuev to go.
Rukosuev’s second run wasn’t as quick as Keisinger’s, but was just enough to hold the German off to win gold, with Keisinger only .05 back. Matt Weston finished third, .35 out of gold.
Seibel’s second run was only sixth quickest and dropped him to fourth in a competitive field. Chen finished fifth, while Lukas Nydegger helped put all three Germans in the top six with a sixth place effort.
Marcus Wyatt finished ninth to help put both British sleds in the top ten.
Kyle Murray was the lone North American to get a second run in Altenberg. The Canadian finished 14th after sitting in 12th after the first run. His teammate, Mark Lynch, missed the second heat by .2 and finished 21st.
The United States’ men struggled to get into their rhythm in Altenberg, with all three missing the second heat. HUnter Williams finished 22nd, just ahead of Daniel Barefoot in 23rd and Stephen Garbett in 24th.
With his win, Evgeniy Rukosuev simply needs to start the final race of the ICC season and finish within the top 20 to win the season title. Germany’s Felix Seibel, Felix Keisinger, and Lukas Nydegger are all jockeying for position with one race to go.
Results:
| Pos | Name | Nation | Bib | Start 1 | Start 2 | Run 1 | Run 2 | Finish |
| 1 | Evgeniy Rukosuev | RUS | 11 | 5.02 | 5.08 | 58.54 | 56.83 | 1:55.37 |
| 2 | Felix Keisinger | GER | 4 | 5.06 | 4.98 | 58.95 | 56.47 | 1:55.42 |
| 3 | Matt Weston | GBR | 6 | 4.98 | 4.99 | 58.94 | 56.78 | 1:55.72 |
| 4 | Felix Seibel | GER | 12 | 5.29 | 5.21 | 58.88 | 57.01 | 1:55.89 |
| 5 | Wenhao Chen | CHN | 7 | 5.01 | 4.98 | 58.93 | 56.98 | 1:55.91 |
| 6 | Lukas Nydegger | GER | 5 | 5.29 | 5.29 | 59.40 | 56.99 | 1:56.39 |
| 7 | Mihail Enache | ROU | 22 | 5.20 | 5.13 | 59.44 | 57.46 | 1:56.90 |
| 8 | Nathan Crumpton | ASA | 13 | 5.24 | 5.18 | 59.64 | 57.37 | 1:57.01 |
| 9 | Marcus Wyatt | GBR | 9 | 5.01 | 4.99 | 59.65 | 57.50 | 1:57.15 |
| 10 | Danill Romanov | RUS | 10 | 5.02 | 5.06 | 59.56 | 57.75 | 1:57.31 |
| 11 | Nicholas Timmings | AUS | 8 | 5.27 | 5.19 | 59.66 | 57.68 | 1:57.34 |
| 12 | Basil Sieber | SUI | 2 | 5.32 | 5.33 | 59.73 | 57.66 | 1:57.39 |
| 13 | Florian Auer | AUT | 3 | 5.31 | 5.29 | 60.13 | 57.44 | 1:57.57 |
| 14 | Kyle Murray | CAN | 15 | 5.25 | 5.17 | 59.67 | 57.93 | 1:57.60 |
| 15 | Jared Firestone | ISR | 18 | 5.26 | 5.21 | 59.82 | 58.41 | 1:58.23 |
| 16 | Elvis Veinbergs | LAT | 1 | 5.36 | 5.41 | 59.83 | 58.47 | 1:58.30 |
| 17 | Brendan Doyle | IRL | 16 | 5.23 | 5.29 | 60.49 | 58.01 | 1:58.50 |
| 18 | Lucas Defayet | FRA | 20 | 5.34 | 5.28 | 60.25 | 58.37 | 1:58.62 |
| 19 | Manuel Schwärzer | ITA | 14 | 5.17 | 5.17 | 60.32 | 59.28 | 1:59.61 |
| 20 | Krists Netlaus | LAT | 21 | 5.26 | 5.31 | 60.33 | 59.28 | 1:59.61 |
| 21 | Mark Lynch | CAN | 25 | 5.32 | 60.69 | |||
| 22 | Hunter Williams | USA | 26 | 5.33 | 60.88 | |||
| 23 | Daniel Barefoot | USA | 17 | 5.24 | 61.04 | |||
| 24 | Stephen Garbett | USA | 19 | 5.41 | 61.21 | |||
| 25 | Jeff Bauer | LUX | 24 | 5.74 | 61.77 | |||
| 26 | Colin Freeling | BEL | 27 | 5.48 | 62.27 | |||
| 27 | Timon Drahonovsky | CZE | 28 | 5.65 | 62.80 | |||
| 28 | Adrian Rodriguez | ESP | 29 | 5.40 | 63.38 | |||
| DNS | Samuel Keiser | SUI | 23 | DNS |
