From Winterleiten, AUT
(December 16, 2022) – Thomas Kammerlander won the season opening race in Winterleiten, beating out teammate Michael Scheikl for gold.
Kammerlander carried a .16 second advantage over Scheikl after the first heat, with Italy’s Florian Clara within shouting distance of the lead in third. On the second run, Clara was able to close the gap to Scheikl, but didn’t have enough in his second run to beat out either of the two Austrians.
Scheikl’s second run was clean enough, but lacked the speed needed to close the gap to Kammerlander. Kammerlander, in turn, set the quick run of the second heat to win both heats, and with them the race by .52.
Scheikl gave Austria a one-two finish in second place, with Italy’s Florian Clara in third.
Italy grabbed the remainder of the top six, with Alex Gruber, Patrick Pigneter, and Matthias Troger taking fourth through sixth, respectively.
South Korea entered their first sleds in the men’s divison with Semyeong Kim and Seungmin Lee. Kim finished 21st, while Lee finished 25th.
Swiss slider Shohei Tanaka finished 19th.
Results:
| Pos | Name | Nation | Bib | Start 1 | Start 2 | Run 1 | Run 2 | Total |
| 1 | Thomas Kammerlander | AUT | 29 | 4.08 | 4.08 | 61.61 | 62.65 | 2:04.26 |
| 2 | Michael Scheikl | AUT | 27 | 4.01 | 4.02 | 61.77 | 63.01 | 2:04.78 |
| 3 | Florian Clara | ITA | 25 | 4.16 | 4.13 | 61.91 | 62.99 | 2:04.90 |
| 4 | Alex Gruber | ITA | 30 | 4.14 | 4.14 | 62.17 | 63.08 | 2:05.25 |
| 5 | Patrick Pigneter | ITA | 26 | 4.22 | 4.21 | 62.43 | 63.03 | 2:05.46 |
| 6 | Mathias Troger | ITA | 23 | 4.24 | 4.23 | 62.26 | 63.24 | 2:05.52 |
| 7 | Fabian Achenrainer | AUT | 24 | 4.04 | 4.11 | 62.63 | 63.57 | 2:06.20 |
| 8 | Stefan Federer | SUI | 12 | 4.14 | 4.16 | 62.72 | 63.51 | 2:06.23 |
| 9 | Florian Markt | AUT | 22 | 4.20 | 4.22 | 62.66 | 63.69 | 2:06.35 |
| 10 | Ziga Kralj | SLO | 10 | 4.37 | 4.34 | 64.02 | 64.31 | 2:08.33 |
| 11 | Bina Mekina | SLO | 21 | 4.33 | 4.37 | 64.47 | 64.44 | 2:08.91 |
| 12 | Simon Dietz | GER | 20 | 4.18 | 4.11 | 64.13 | 64.81 | 2:08.94 |
| 13 | Vid Kralj | SLO | 19 | 4.28 | 4.26 | 64.66 | 64.53 | 2:09.19 |
| 14 | Matevz Vertelj | SLO | 18 | 4.47 | 4.46 | 64.57 | 65.21 | 2:09.78 |
| 15 | Jerome Almer | SUI | 15 | 4.48 | 4.50 | 64.47 | 65.99 | 2:10.46 |
| 16 | David Rydl | CZE | 17 | 4.67 | 4.69 | 66.17 | 67.48 | 2:13.65 |
| 17 | Adrian Machnik | POL | 14 | 4.53 | 4.54 | 71.13 | 69.26 | 2:20.39 |
| 18 | Oliwier Hajduk | POL | 5 | 4.66 | 4.54 | 75.07 | 73.07 | 2:28.14 |
| 19 | Shohei Tanaka | SUI | 4 | 4.75 | 4.84 | 71.44 | 76.77 | 2:28.21 |
| 20 | Viorel Andrei Deac | ROU | 87 | 4.65 | 4.57 | 78.79 | 74.38 | 2:33.17 |
| 21 | Semyeong Kim | KOR | 3 | 4.81 | 4.60 | 78.86 | 77.17 | 2:36.03 |
| 22 | Cezar-Mihai Joldescu | ROU | 7 | 4.94 | 4.81 | 73.14 | 71.28 | 2:44.42 |
| 23 | Silvio Ionut Strugari | ROU | 9 | 5.32 | 5.21 | 74.88 | 73.43 | 2:48.31 |
| 24 | Nikolas Dawidowski | POL | 6 | 5.05 | 4.99 | 75.75 | 73.73 | 2:49.48 |
| 25 | Seungmin Lee | KOR | 1 | 4.90 | 4.96 | 83.19 | 95.55 | 3:18.74 |
