From Altenberg, GER
(December 17, 2022) – Kaspars Rinks continued his stellar 2022/2023 campaign in Altenberg, where he cruised to victory.
Rinks set the two quickest times of the competition, and also had the quickest start of the competition, on his way to a .548 second victory over Austria’s Noah Kallan. Other than his second run’s start, Rinks had the quickest split at every timing line in both heats on his way to his third gold medal of the season.
Kallan took silver, edging out Italian Alex Guffler for the spot. Guffler’s second run was quicker than Kallan’s, but not enough to move up in the second run. Guffler did hold onto third easily, nearly .3 ahead of anyone behind him.
Kallans’s medal was his second straight after two DNFs in Lillehammer. Guffler’s bronze was his first of the year.
Austria’s Fabio Zauser finished fourth, ahead of Marco Leger in fifth. Hunter Harris of the Untied States finished sixth, one spot ahead of teammate Matt Greiner in seventh.
The American men had a strong showing in Altenberg. They put three men in the top ten, with Aidan Mueller in ninth as the third slider in the top ten, while Marcus Mueller finished 11th. Ansel Haugsjaa finished 16th and Frank Ike 19th to help put every American in the top twenty.
The Canadian men couldn’t match their women’s luge counterparts’ success. Bastian van Wouw, William Borger and Dylan Morse finished 21st through 23rd, respectively.
With two races to go in the Junior World Cup season, Kaspars Rinks holds a thirty point lead over Marco Leger. Both men are well ahead of anyone else, with Fabio Zauser currently in third, over 100 points back.
Americans Aidan Mueller and Matthew Greiner are both in contention for the third spot on the overall podium in fourth and fifth, respectively.
Results:
| Pos | Name | Nation | Bib | Start 1 | Start 2 | Run 1 | Run 2 | Total |
| 1 | Kspars Rinks | LAT | 11 | 5.460 | 5.476 | 52.497 | 52.729 | 1:45.226 |
| 2 | Noah Kallan | AUT | 14 | 5.483 | 5.508 | 52.847 | 52.927 | 1:45.774 |
| 3 | Alex Gufler | ITA | 19 | 5.463 | 5.474 | 52.889 | 52.909 | 1:45.798 |
| 4 | Fabio Zauser | AUT | 9 | 5.522 | 5.532 | 52.943 | 53.111 | 1:46.054 |
| 5 | Marco Leger | GER | 12 | 5.492 | 5.488 | 53.105 | 53.060 | 1:46.165 |
| 6 | Hunter Harris | USA | 3 | 5.536 | 5.547 | 53.004 | 53.197 | 1:46.201 |
| 7 | Matt Greiner | USA | 7 | 5.551 | 5.606 | 52.965 | 53.507 | 1:46.472 |
| 8 | Lukas Peccei | ITA | 16 | 5.575 | 5.528 | 53.386 | 53.108 | 1:46.494 |
| 9 | Aidan Mueller | USA | 10 | 5.593 | 5.595 | 53.362 | 53.226 | 1:46.588 |
| 10 | Markus Arnold | GER | 8 | 5.528 | 5.547 | 53.252 | 53.447 | 1:46.699 |
| 11 | Marcus Mueller | USA | 4 | 5.479 | 5.489 | 53.341 | 53.410 | 1:46.751 |
| 12 | Leon Haselrieder | ITA | 22 | 5.586 | 5.601 | 53.422 | 53.340 | 1:46.762 |
| 13 | Hans Fritzsch | GER | 6 | 5.544 | 5.511 | 53.363 | 53.425 | 1:46.788 |
| 14 | Hannes Röder | GER | 2 | 5.508 | 5.396 | 53.450 | 53.368 | 1:46.818 |
| 15 | Danyil Martsinovskyi | UKR | 5 | 5.502 | 5.508 | 53.125 | 53.926 | 1:57.051 |
| 16 | Ansel Haugsjaa | USA | 21 | 5.547 | 5.551 | 54.227 | 53.172 | 1:47.399 |
| 17 | Florian Tanzer | AUT | 30 | 5.475 | 5.490 | 53.928 | 53.595 | 1:47.523 |
| 18 | Vlad Musei | ROU | 24 | 5.536 | 5.539 | 53.690 | 53.847 | 1:47.537 |
| 19 | Frank Ike | USA | 18 | 5.543 | 5.533 | 54.505 | 53.722 | 1:48.227 |
| 20 | Rasmus Moberg | SWE | 13 | 5.533 | 5.568 | 53.908 | 54.538 | 1:48.266 |
| 21 | Bastian Van Wouw | CAN | 26 | 5.657 | 5.618 | 54.046 | 54.246 | 1:48.292 |
| 22 | William Borger | CAN | 23 | 5.535 | 5.575 | 54.196 | 54.154 | 1:48.350 |
| 23 | Dylan Morse | CAN | 25 | 5.539 | 5.571 | 54.057 | 54.477 | 1:48.534 |
| 24 | Vratislav Varga | SVK | 17 | 5.645 | 5.651 | 54.576 | 54.277 | 1:48.853 |
| 25 | Metod Majercak | SVK | 20 | 5.735 | 5.618 | 55.061 | 54.548 | 1:49.609 |
| 26 | Jakub Veprovsky | CZE | 15 | 5.675 | 5.711 | 56.015 | 54.416 | 1:50.431 |
| 27 | Tian Badzukov | SLO | 28 | 5.743 | 5.710 | 55.680 | 55.458 | 1:51.138 |
| 28 | Lovro Kovacic | SLO | 27 | 5.674 | 5.663 | 54.758 | 56.396 | 1:51.154 |
| 29 | Adam Jaskiewicz | POL | 31 | 5.798 | 5.766 | 58.557 | 58.350 | 1:56.907 |
| 30 | Maksymilian Gutowski | POL | 32 | 5.922 | 5.808 | 59.881 | 57.689 | 1:57.570 |
| 31 | Mateusz Kielbasa | POL | 33 | 5.739 | 5.768 | 57.948 | 60.593 | 1:58.541 |
| 32 | Christian Bosman | SVK | 29 | 5.506 | 5.514 | 54.682 | 64.470 | 1:59.152 |
| 33 | Roberts Dreimanis | LAT | 1 | 5.579 | 5.622 | 65.583 | 54.493 | 2:00.076 |
