From Yanqing, CHN
(February 23, 2025) – Tobias Wendl and Tobias Arlt entered the final race of the 2024/2025 FIL World Cup season with a sizeable point lead, and really just needed to put down two clean and safe runs to win the season title.
But that’s not Wenld and Arlt’s style. Instead, they threw down the fastest run of the weekend in the second heat to come from behind for gold.
Wendl and Arlt trailed Latvia’s Martins Bots and Roberts Plume by just .056 after one run, with the remainder of the field at least a half of a second out of the battle for gold, leaving it as a two-sled race for the final gold medal of the year
On the track where the duo had won their most recent Olympic gold medal, Wendl and Arlt may have saved their best run of the season for last. Their second run was nearly flawless and enough to take the lead from teammates Toni Eggert and Florian Müller with just the Latvians to go.
Bots and Plume, who had crashed in Pyeongchang while in medal contention, answered with a great run of their own. But the speed wasn’t there for the Latvian duo, and while their run was clean and quick, it asn’t enough to outslide their German counterparts as they finished over a tenth back in second, giving Wendl and Arlt gold.
It was the fourth gold medal in six races for Wendl and Arlt, and their sixth World Cup title. The silver for Bots and Plume was their sixth medal in a season where they never finished outside of the top four.
Despite nearly 60 World Cup gold medals and six World Cup titles, Wendl was still very excited by his championship.
“Most of our runs this weekend were really nice,” Wendl told FIL media after the race. “We had fun racing against everyone today and we’re just really happy and proud of our sixth World Cup!”
Eggert and Müller were bronze, the leader of a secondary pack who had been racing for bronze. They edged out Italy’s Emanuel Rieder and Simon Kainzwaldner, who were fourth. Thomas Steu and Wolfgang Kindl were fifth, with Americans Zack Digregorio and Sean Hollander sixth.
With the season wrapped up, Wendl and Arlt’s margin of victory was 104 points over Bots and Plume. Steu and Kindl were third overall, only nine points ahead of Toni Eggert and Florian Müller in fourth, with Hannes Orlamünder and Paul Gubitz fifth overall.
Results:
| Pos | Name | Nation | Bib | Start 1 | Start 2 | Run 1 | Run 2 | Total |
| 1 | Wendl / Arlt | GER | 9 | 6.773 | 6.775 | 59.211 | 58.932 | 1:58.143 |
| 2 | Bots / Plume | LAT | 7 | 6.830 | 6.825 | 59.155 | 59.146 | 1:58.301 |
| 3 | Eggert / Müller | GER | 11 | 6.857 | 6.827 | 59.765 | 59.143 | 1:58.908 |
| 4 | Rieder / Kainzwaldner | ITA | 4 | 6.878 | 6.893 | 59.632 | 59.437 | 1:59.069 |
| 5 | Steu / Kindl | AUT | 8 | 6.913 | 6.905 | 59.694 | 59.717 | 1:59.411 |
| 6 | Digregorio / Hollander | USA | 2 | 6.889 | 6.906 | 59.832 | 59.665 | 1:59.497 |
| 7 | Jubayi / Hou | CHN | 6 | 6.965 | 6.897 | 62.113 | 59.953 | 2:02.066 |
| 8 | Sevics-Mikelsevics / Krasts | LAT | 13 | 6.903 | 6.911 | 61.723 | 60.551 | 2:02.274 |
| 9 | Hoi / Kachmar | UKR | 3 | 7.010 | 6.988 | 61.333 | 61.032 | 2:02.365 |
| 10 | Orlamünder / Gubitz | GER | 10 | 6.907 | 6.903 | 61.949 | 60.954 | 2:02.903 |
| 11 | Handaric / Motzca | ROU | 5 | 7.073 | 7.094 | 62.475 | 63.800 | 2:06.275 |
| DNS | Nagler / Malleier | ITA | 1 | DNS | ||||
| DNS | Gitlan / Serban | ROU | 12 | DNS |