Sungbin Yun Wins First Gold of the Season

From Park City, USA

(Nov. 18, 2017) Given the relatively short length of the track, racing at Park City tends to be rather tight with ties throughout the field. Rarely does someone walk away with a race, especially when racing the greatest athlete their sport has ever seen.

That’s exactly what Korean Sungbin Yun did on the second stop of the IBSF World Cup.

Sungbin Yun (Courtesy IBSF TV)

Yun came into the second heat with an already large .31 advantage over Lake Placid winner Martins Dukurs. On his second run Yun threw down, not only finishing .63 ahead of Dukurs, but breaking Dukurs’ track record in the process.

Behind Yun and Dukurs there was plenty of movement up and down the leader board, with German Axel Jungk moving into third from sixth place. Jungk’s teammate Christopher Grotheer moved from seventh to fourth, tied with Tomass Dukurs. Alexander Tretiakov moved up from ninth to finish in sixth.

Struggles continued for the American men’s skeleton program, with Matt Antoine leading the way in 12th place. Greg West finished 16th and John Daly 18th.

It was a similar story for Canada, with Kevin Boyer leading the way in 14th place, one spot ahead of teammate Dave Greszczyszyn. Barrett Mrtineau just missed the second run in 22nd.

New Zealand’s Rhys Thornbury came into the second run looking for a top five finish. He fell to ninth on the second run, but still had a solid top ten to fall back on. Ukrainian Vladyslav Heraskevych moved up from 20th to 13th on the strength of a eighth-fastest second run.

Results:

Pos Name Nation Bib Start 1 Start 2 Run 1 Run 2 Total
1 Sungbin Yun KOR 10 4.51 4.52 48.82 48.50 1:37.32
2 Martins Dukurs LAT 13 4.59 4.60 49.13 48.82 1:37.95
3 Axel Jungk RUS 7 4.62 4.52 49.34 48.73 1:38.07
4 Christopher Grotheer GER 11 4.67 4.67 49.35 48.93 1:38.28
4 Tomass Dukurs LAT 9 4.69 4.70 49.22 49.06 1:38.28
6 Alexander Tretiakov RUS 6 4.58 4.53 49.62 48.89 1:38.51
7 Alexander Gassner GER 24 4.70 4.70 49.61 49.03 1:38.64
8 Nikita Tregubov RUS 8 4.63 4.67 49.28 49.46 1:38.74
9 Rhys Thornbury NZL 1 4.70 4.68 49.30 49.56 1:38.86
10 Matthias Guggenberger AUT 14 4.74 4.74 49.62 49.32 1:38.94
11 Jisoo Kim KOR 23 4.58 4.59 49.64 49.33 1:38.97
12 Matthew Antoine USA 12 4.69 4.70 49.64 49.35 1:38.99
13 Vladyslav Heraskevych UKR 31 4.90 4.89 49.85 49.32 1:39.17
14 Kevin Boyer CAN 19 4.65 4.66 49.71 49.48 1:39.19
15 Dave Greszczyszyn CAN 18 4.73 4.77 49.68 49.57 1:39.25
16 Greg West USA 26 4.74 4.73 49.79 49.47 1:39.26
17 Ander Mirambell ESP 3 4.81 4.83 49.68 49.58 1:39.26
18 John Daly USA 22 4.72 4.74 49.82 49.49 1:39.31
19 John Farrow AUS 27 4.84 4.84 49.81 49.54 1:39.35
20 Dominic Parsons GBR 17 4.74 4.75 49.71 49.70 1:39.41
21 Wenqiang Geng CHN 15 4.73 49.86
22 Barrett Martineau CAN 21 4.73 49.90
22 Hiroatsu Takahashi JPN 28 4.73 49.90
24 Jerry Rice GBR 20 4.73 49.92
25 Jack Thomas GBR 4 4.66 50.00
26 Vladislav Marchenkov RUS 16 4.73 50.10
27 Joseoph Luke Cecchini ITA 25 4.72 50.26
28 Nicholas Timmings AUS 30 4.76 50.38
29 Ronald Auderset SUI 29 4.64 50.58
30 Riet Graf SUI 5 4.89 50.63
31 Alex Hanssen NOR 2 4.66 50.82