Brüggler & Angerer Win in Deutschnofen Upset

From Deutschnofen, ITA

(Jan. 28, 2018) It had been a perfect season for the Italian duo of Patrick Pigneter & Florian Clara coming into Deutschnofen, and going into the second heat of the doubles event it seemed as though the Italians would cruise yet again.

Pigneter & Clara carried a .64 advantage over Austrians Rupert Brüggler & Tobias Angerer going into the second run. On that second run, the Austrians ran clean, putting themselves in position to take home a silver medal. All Pigneter & Clara needed was an “okay” run.

The Italians seemed on their way to victory, until a mistake late in their run dropped their time to the eighth fastest of the ten-team race. The mistake not only cost them a victory, but a medal as well.

Brüggler & Angerer took gold, edging Russians Pavel Porshnev & Ivan Lazarev by .16 to win. Russians Aleksandr Egorov & Petr Popov rounded out the podium with a bronze, just .04 behind their teammates.

Armin Folie & Simone Gaio finished fourth, with Aleksey Martyanov & Ivan Rodin finishing fifth and Pigneter & Clara rounding out the top six.

The sixth place finish puts a small dent into the World Cup lead held by Pigneter & Clara. The Italians simply need to finish the season finale to win the overall title.

Behind them, however, there’s quite the points battle for the top three. Brüggler & Angerer are tied for second, with Porshnev & Lazarev only 10 points out in fourth.

Results:

Pos Names Nation Bib Run 1 Run 2 Total
1 Brüggler / Angerer AUT 8 59.09 58.91 1:58.00
2 Porshnev / Lazarev RUS 9 59.38 48.78 1:58.16
3 Egorov / Popov RUS 10 59.18 59.02 1:58.20
4 Folie / Gaio ITA 6 1:00.08 59.78 1:59.86
5 Martyanov / Rodin RUS 7 1:00.00 1:00.19 2:00.19
6 Pigneter / Clara ITA 11 58.45 1:02.39 2:00.84
7 Jedrzejko / Budny POL 5 1:02.21 1:01.67 2:03.88
8 Demchuk / Lenko UKR 4 1:02.57 1:01.58 2:04.15
9 Guzeloglu / Ercoskun TUR 1 1:05.09 1:03.60 2:08.69
10 Unwin / Evans GBR 2 1:27.33 1:26.15 2:53.48