From Igls, AUT
(January 14, 2026) – Maxmilian Illmann’s outstanding 2025/2026 Europe Cup campaign continued with another gold medal, this time in Igls.
Illmann and Lukas Koller slid toa .09 second lead over teammates Hans Peter Hannighofer and David Steube after the first run, with the British team of Nick Gleeson and Jens Hullah tied with Germany’s Laurin Zern and Erik Leypold in the front of a large pack of sliders within shouting distance of the podium in third.
The second heat saw Latvia’s Renars Grantins and Lauris Kaufmanis slide to the lead ahead of Germany’s Tobias Dostthaler and Simon Büthe. They were quickly matched by Michael Vogt and Amadou Ndiaye, who were making their first Europe Cup start of the season as part of a boycott of Altenberg by Vogt and his team.
Vogt then picked off both Zern and Gleeson in quick succession to move onto the podium with Hannighofer and Illmann still to go.
Hannighofer was his consistent self, taking a top three start and sliding to the lead handily. But Illmann’s season has been remarkable on the Europe Cup season, with wins in all but one race. And he continued that trend in Igls, as he and Koller matched Hannighofer and Steube’s start, with Illmann outdriving his teammate by .04 to win by a combined .13.
The win was the fifth in sixth races for Illmann, while Hannighofer’s silver was his fifth medal in six races.
Vogt and Grantins tied for bronze, with Gleeson fifth and Dostthaler sixth.
Canada’s Pat Norton and Shane Ohrt slid to tenth place, with Brazil’s Gustavo Dos Santos Ferreira and Rafael Souza da Silva 16th in their first ever look at the track in Igls.
With two races to go in the Europe Cup two-man season, Illmann leads Hannighofer by 72 points. Zern sits third, ahead of Nick Gleeson and Alexander Czudaj, the latter of whom has not started the last two races.
Results:
| Pos | Names | Nation | Bib | Start 1 | Start 2 | Run 1 | Run 2 | Finish |
| 1 | Illmann / Koller | GER | 8 | 5.23 | 5.19 | 52.54 | 52.64 | 1:45.18 |
| 2 | Hannighofer / Steube | GER | 13 | 5.17 | 5.19 | 52.63 | 52.68 | 1:45.31 |
| 3 | Vogt / Ndiaye | SUI | 29 | 5.18 | 5.18 | 52.87 | 52.85 | 1:45.72 |
| 3 | Grantins / Kaufmanis | LAT | 28 | 5.21 | 5.20 | 52.89 | 52.83 | 1:45.72 |
| 5 | Gleeson / Hullah | GBR | 12 | 5.17 | 5.20 | 52.81 | 52.92 | 1:45.73 |
| 6 | Dostthaler / Büthe | GER | 16 | 5.29 | 5.25 | 52.96 | 52.91 | 1:45.87 |
| 7 | Zern / Leypold | GER | 6 | 5.24 | 5.21 | 52.81 | 53.11 | 1:45.92 |
| 8 | Variola / Lambrughi | ITA | 11 | 5.17 | 5.14 | 53.05 | 53.06 | 1:46.11 |
| 9 | Prochazka / Petrikovic | CZE | 5 | 5.20 | 5.21 | 52.99 | 53.20 | 1:46.19 |
| 10 | Norton / Ohrt | CAN | 27 | 5.25 | 5.25 | 53.18 | 53.07 | 1:46.25 |
| 11 | Li / Ren | CHN | 25 | 5.25 | 5.26 | 53.16 | 53.13 | 1:46.29 |
| 12 | Zakrzewski / Sarnecki | POL | 17 | 5.31 | 5.32 | 53.11 | 53.26 | 1:46.37 |
| 13 | Turea / Dinca | ROU | 4 | 5.34 | 5.35 | 53.22 | 53.31 | 1:46.53 |
| 14 | Baechler / Laporal | FRA | 9 | 5.40 | 5.38 | 53.32 | 53.33 | 1:46.65 |
| 15 | Lourimi / Sosna | POL | 3 | 5.32 | 5.36 | 53.30 | 53.41 | 1:46.71 |
| 16 | Dos santos ferreira / Souza da silva | BRA | 23 | 5.36 | 5.29 | 53.70 | 53.45 | 1:47.15 |
| 17 | Felder / Jones | SUI | 15 | 5.45 | 5.44 | 53.58 | 53.68 | 1:47.26 |
| 18 | Diouf / Afagbegee | FRA | 14 | 5.34 | 5.31 | 53.89 | 53.70 | 1:47.59 |
| 19 | Beierl / Förster | AUT | 18 | 5.32 | 5.34 | 53.83 | 54.10 | 1:47.93 |
| 20 | Vatrican / Prevost | MON | 1 | 5.29 | 5.71 | 53.71 | 54.36 | 1:48.07 |
| 21 | Pals / Janssens | NED | 10 | 5.43 | 54.11 | |||
| 22 | Sletten / Grothe | NOR | 7 | 5.72 | 54.17 | |||
| 23 | Pelletier / Gerente paquet | FRA | 24 | 5.61 | 54.24 | |||
| 24 | Renggli / Limacher | SUI | 20 | 5.45 | 54.31 | |||
| 25 | Lagrange / Lagrange | ARG | 21 | 5.56 | 54.40 | |||
| 26 | Boteff wallace / Minazio | FRA | 19 | 5.60 | 54.59 | |||
| 27 | Bottin / Araujo-clety | MON | 2 | 5.52 | 54.91 | |||
| 28 | Bangiev / Brown | BUL | 22 | 6.06 | 56.10 | |||
| DNS | Bindilatti / Martins | BRA | 26 | DNS |