2016/2017 FIL World Cup – Team Relay – Race 6

From Altenberg, GER

For the first time since Lake Placid, there was serious doubt as to if Germany would get on the podium in the Team Relay competition.

It took a flawless slide and a track record for the Germans to overcome an deficit to take gold ahead of the Latvians. Germany sat fourth after the runs down by both Natalie Geisenberger and Felix Loch, with only the doubles World Cup champions of Toni Eggert & Sascha Benecken to come. Eggert & Benecken were able to erase a differential of over .2 seconds, slapping the paddle .125 ahead of the Latvians.

All wasn’t lost for Latvia, however. For all of their struggles in singles/doubles races, Latvia has excelled in the team relay, and did so again when it most mattered. With their silver medal, Latvia also finishes second overall in the Team Relay World Cup after coming into the race in a logjam with five other nations for second, with Russia, Canada, the United States, and Austria all in the mix.

Russia briefly had a shot at silver, with the doubles team of Yuzhakov & Prokhorov making one vital mistake at the bottom of their run to fall back to third. The finish also left Russia third in the overall standings.

Austria, Canada, and the United States rounded out the top six, both in the race and in the overall World Cup tally.

Results: