World Cup Leader Yun Wins in Whistler

From Whistler, CAN

(Nov. 25, 2017) Sungbin Yun has been traditionally good in Whistler. In the year of his home country Olympics, Sungbin was exceptional.

The Korean set the track record in the first heat, and cruised to victory with the fastest run in the second heat to take gold, .75 ahead of Russian Nikita Tregubov. The gold medal was Sungbin’s 18th medal of his relatively short World Cup career.

If it weren’t for Sungbin Yun, Tregubov would have cruised to a gold himself. He was the second fastest in each heats, and cruised to a silver medal ahead of Tomass Dukurs of Latvia.

Sungbin Yun on his second run (Coutresy IBSF TV)

Dukurs came into his second run tied for sixth with Christopher Grotheer of Germany, but put down a great second run to move himself up the order. Both Matt Antoine and Dave Greszczyszyn struggled on their runs to help the Latvian take bronze.

Grotheer finished fourth, ahead of teammate Alexander Gassner and Martins Dukurs, who struggled in his first run but set the third fastest run of the second heat to move from eighth to sixth.

Dave Greszczyszyn finished seventh as the top-finishing Canadian. He came into the second run in bronze medal contention, but a few slight mistakes on his second run, coupled with an excellent run by the men in front of him left him on the outside looking in. Teammates Kevin Boyer and Barrett Martineau both had much better runs in their second heats, with Boyer moving from 13th to 12th, and Martineau from 20th to 15th on their second trips down.

Matt Antoione led the way for the United States with an eighth place finish, as the lone bright spot for the Americans. Greg West and John Daly both missed their second runs, with West finishing 26th and Daly 29th.

Dom Parsons moved up one spot from 14th to 13th in his second run, tied with Norway’s Alex Hanssen. Parsons’ British teammates Jack Thomas and Jerry Rice finished 19th and 23rd, respectively.

Results:

Pos Name Nation Bib Start 1 Start 2 Run 1 Run 2 Total
1 Sungbin Yun KOR 14 4.52 4.50 51.99 52.35 1:44.34
2 Nikita Tregubov RUS 8 4.58 4.56 52.43 52.66 1:45.09
3 Tomass Dukurs LAT 7 4.67 4.61 52.64 52.69 1:45.33
4 Christopher Grotheer GER 10 4.65 4.61 52.64 52.73 1:45.37
5 Alexander Gassner GER 6 4.66 4.66 52.61 52.86 1:45.47
6 Martins Dukurs LAT 12 4.57 4.56 52.83 52.68 1:45.51
7 Dave Greszczyszyn CAN 17 4.66 4.67 52.57 52.97 1:45.54
8 Matthew Antoine USA 9 4.62 4.64 52.58 53.23 1:45.81
9 Axel Jungk GER 13 4.58 4.53 53.28 52.75 1:46.03
9 Rhys Thornbury NZL 19 4.63 4.61 52.85 53.18 1:46.03
11 Matthias Guggenberger AUT 15 4.63 4.66 52.95 53.18 1:46.13
12 Kevin Boyer CAN 18 4.56 4.59 53.31 52.90 1:46.21
13 Dominc Parsons GBR 20 4.74 4.72 53.50 53.27 1:46.77
13 Alex Hanssen NOR 5 4.58 4.61 52.95 53.82 1:46.77
15 Barrett Martineau CAN 25 4.65 4.66 53.84 52.98 1:46.82
16 Jisoo Kim KOR 16 4.53 4.53 53.59 53.60 1:47.19
17 Ander Mirambell ESP 27 4.82 4.82 53.66 53.54 1:47.20
18 Vladyslav Heraskevych UKR 24 4.93 4.86 53.73 53.54 1:47.27
19 Jack Thomas GBR 4 4.61 4.62 53.64 54.12 1:47.76
20 Nicholas Timmings AUS 3 4.73 4.73 53.72 54.31 1:48.03
21 Wenqiang Geng CHN 11 4.69 53.90
22 Hiroatsu Takahashi JPN 29 4.71 54.02
23 Jeremy Rice GBR 26 4.72 54.12
24 Vladislav Marchenkov RUS 21 4.64 54.22
25 Riet Graf SUI 2 4.75 54.32
26 Greg West USA 22 4.68 54.32
27 Dean Timmings AUS 1 4.72 54.77
28 Ronald Auderset SUI 30 4.58 54.91
29 John Daly USA 23 4.68 54.94
30 Joseph Luke Cecchini ITA 28 4.67 55.05