From Igls, AUT
(December 3, 2022) – The FIL World Cup kicked off in Igls, Austria on Saturday and with it the first Austrian sweep of a doubles podium in recent memory.
Perennial contenders Thomas Steu and Lorenz Koller led a tight race for the lead after one heat, with teammates Juri Gatt and Riccardo Schöpf back by just under a tenth of a second. Meanwhile, Yannick Müller and Armin Frauscher found themselves in seventh, on the outside looking in at a potential podium.
On the second run Müller and Frauscher put down a huge second effort, the second quickest of the heat and below the old track record coming into the day’s event. The Austrian duo sat in the leaders’ box and watched as Italy, Latvia, then a pair of German teams all came down unable to unseat them.
That left Müller and Frauscher in the lead with only Teammates Gatt and Schöpf, and Steu and Koller to go. Gatt and Schöpf threw down what would be the fastest run of the heat to move into the lead ahead of Müller and Fauscher, leaving a decent run from Steu and Koller between Austria and a podium sweep.
Steu and Koller, who lowered the track record by nearly two tenths of a second in the first heat, were unable to find the speed they had in the first run, and as they crossed the line found themselves .079 behind Gatt and Schöpf in second, enough to give Austria a sweep of the podium.
The final results saw Gatt and Schöpf .079 up on Steu and Koller and .083 ahead of Müller and Frauscher.
Germany’s Toni Eggert and Sascha Benecken finished in fourth despite two quality runs. Teammates Tobias Wendl and Tobias Arlt finished fifth, while Latvia’s Martins Bots and Roberts Plume finished sixth.
The United States’ Zach Digregorio and Sean Hollander finished eighth, just .1 out of the medals. The duo briefly had the track record before Italy’s Ludwig Rieder and Patrick Rastner became the first team to start below two seconds.
Dana Kellogg and Duncan Segger couldn’t overcome mistakes in their second run and fell from 12th to finish 17th.
Results:
| Pos | Names | Nation | Bib | Start 1 | Start 2 | Run 1 | Run 2 | Total |
| 1 | Gatt / Schöpf | AUT | 6 | 2.027 | 2.034 | 39.470 | 39.445 | 1:18.915 |
| 2 | Steu / Koller | AUT | 13 | 2.065 | 2.098 | 39.387 | 39.607 | 1:18.994 |
| 3 | Müller / Frauscher | AUT | 14 | 2.052 | 2.037 | 39.544 | 39.454 | 1:18.998 |
| 4 | Eggert / Benecken | GER | 19 | 2.044 | 2.042 | 39.504 | 39.517 | 1:19.021 |
| 5 | Wendl / Arlt | GER | 16 | 2.060 | 2.036 | 39.507 | 39.541 | 1:19.048 |
| 6 | Bots / Plume | LAT | 15 | 2.028 | 2.028 | 39.519 | 39.549 | 1:19.068 |
| 7 | Nagler / Malleier | ITA | 18 | 2.017 | 2.015 | 39.525 | 39.568 | 1:19.093 |
| 8 | DiGregorio / Hollander | USA | 9 | 2.003 | 2.001 | 39.585 | 39.515 | 1:19.100 |
| 9 | Orlamünder / Gubitz | GER | 8 | 2.071 | 2.072 | 39.656 | 39.539 | 1:19.195 |
| 10 | Rieder / Kainzwaldner | ITA | 20 | 2.035 | 2.016 | 39.669 | 39.760 | 1:19.429 |
| 11 | Rieder / Rastner | ITA | 17 | 2.000 | 1.994 | 39.755 | 39.748 | 1:19.503 |
| 12 | Chmielewski / Kowalewski | POL | 12 | 2.088 | 2.074 | 39.904 | 39.808 | 1:19.712 |
| 13 | Vavercak / Zmij | SVK | 11 | 2.050 | 2.047 | 39.869 | 39.881 | 1:19.750 |
| 14 | Sevics-Mikelsevics / Krasts | LAT | 5 | 2.085 | 2.042 | 40.398 | 39.724 | 1:20.122 |
| 15 | Hoi / Levkovych | UKR | 2 | 2.092 | 2.104 | 40.069 | 40.063 | 1:20.132 |
| 16 | Gitlan / Serban | ROU | 4 | 2.052 | 2.062 | 40.211 | 39.982 | 1:20.193 |
| 17 | Kellogg / Segger | USA | 7 | 2.061 | 2.087 | 39.849 | 40.514 | 1:20.363 |
| 18 | Handaric / Motzca | ROU | 3 | 2.069 | 2.067 | 40.392 | 40.226 | 1:20.618 |
| 19 | Huang / Peng | CHN | 1 | 2.097 | 2.092 | 40.491 | 40.436 | 1:20.927 |
| 20 | Vejdelek / Pekny | CZE | 10 | 2.123 | 2.116 | 40.557 | 40.487 | 1:21.044 |
