Dukurs Dominates to Win Sixth World Title

March 8, 2019 ken News, Skeleton News 0

From Whistler, CAN

(Mar. 8, 2019) – Leading up to World Championships, Latvia’s Martins Dukurs had a 2018/2019 season that he’d otherwise rather forget. He had both won only one race (his fewest in a decade) and missed four podiums (his most in a decade) on his way to an otherwise respectable third place finish overall.

The season was redeemed over the course of two days of sliding, where Dukurs led every heat and broke both the start record and track record on his way to a .51 second victory and his sixth World Championship.

Martins Dukurs (Courtesy IBSF/Viesturs Lacis)

Dukurs broke the track record (formerly held by Sungbin Yun) in the second heat with a 51.91 run, and then almost matched that time on his third run, missing it by only .01. On his fourth run hebroke the start record set by Alexander Tretiakov in the 2010 Olympic Games on what was effectively a victory lap.

The sixth championship extends Dukurs’ lead of the most titles ever, doubling the number won by Gregor Stähli.

L-R: Tregubov, M. Dukurs, Yun (Courtesy IBSF/Viesturs Lacis)

Russian Nikita Tregubov had a great World Championships, finishing second and never having a run outside of the top three fastest of the heat. Olympic gold medalist Sungbin Yun finished third, moving up from sixth overnight on the strength of the second fastest run in each heat.

L-R: Tregubov, M. Dukurs, Yun (Courtesy IBSF/Viesturs Lacis)Christopher Grotheer started the World Championships in second place after his first run, but fell down to fifth after a tough second trip down. He moved up over the last two runs to finish fourth, ahead of Tomass Dukurs in fifth and Alexander Tretiakov in sixth.

Austin Florian was one rough run away from contending for a top six in his first World Championships. Aside from an 16th quickest run in the second heat, Florian had a top ten run every time to place eighth. Behind Florian’s effort over four heats, both Greg West and Kyle Brown saved their best run for the fourth heat. West moved up from 17th to 16th, while Brown moved from 20th to 19th

Canada’s Dave Greszczyszyn finished 11th on home soil. After two runs Greszczyszyn found himself in a disappointing 17th place. A fifth-fastest third heat propelled him up the leaderboard to 11th after three runs, and he held on in the fourth to just miss out on a top ten finish by .02. His teammate Mark Lynch missed out on a top 20 finish, finishing 23rd.

In his first World Championships, Marcus Wyatt was the top finisher for Great Britain. Other than a tough second heat, Wyatt was consistently quick in all four runs to finish 12th. Teammate Jerry Rice finished just out of the top 20 in 21st, while Jack Thomas finished 27th in his second World Championships.

Spain’s Ander Mirambell made a last minute decision to sit out the World Championships after struggling with a back injury all season and was the only pre-race scratch in the field.

Results:

Pos Name Nation Bib Run 1 Run 2 Run 3 Run 4 Total
1 Martins Dukurs LAT 6 52.15 51.91 51.92 52.13 3:28.11
2 Nikita Tregubov RUS 8 52.26 52.17 52.04 52.15 3:28.62
3 Sungbin Yun KOR 5 52.34 52.49 52.01 52.15 3:28.99
4 Christohper Grotheer GER 18 52.22 52.51 52.14 52.22 3:29.09
5 Tomass Dukurs LAT 10 52.36 52.18 52.23 52.34 3:29.11
6 Alexander Tretiakov RUS 7 52.47 52.12 52.36 52.29 3:29.24
7 Alexander Gassner GER 25 52.48 52.70 52.33 52.68 3:30.19
8 Austin Florian USA 17 52.64 52.85 52.17 52.56 3:30.22
9 Seunggi Jung KOR 16 52.78 52.68 52.32 52.54 3:30.32
10 Axel Jungk GER 9 52.78 52.84 52.31 52.46 3:30.39
11 David Greszczyszyn CAN 14 53.09 52.75 52.16 52.41 3:30.41
12 Marcus Wyatt GBR 11 52.86 52.89 52.40 52.50 3:30.65
13 Felix Keisinger GER 4 52.74 52.80 52.67 52.67 3:30.88
14 Jisoo Kim KOR 22 52.87 52.83 52.56 52.89 3:31.15
14 Vladyslav Heraskevych UKR 12 52.94 52.81 52.49 52.91 3:31.15
16 Greg West USA 19 53.11 52.74 52.78 52.73 3:31.36
17 Wenqiang Geng CHN 24 53.04 52.61 52.51 53.21 3:31.37
18 Florian Auer AUT 13 52.88 52.95 52.92 52.76 3:31.51
19 Kyle Brown USA 20 53.21 52.85 53.00 52.70 3:31.76
20 Wengang Yan CHN 23 53.16 52.86 52.85 53.19 3:32.06
21 Jerry Rice GBR 15 53.28 53.20 53.29 2:39.77
22 Brendan Doyle IRL 2 53.48 53.22 53.11 2:39.81
23 Mark Lynch CAN 31 53.41 53.23 53.25 2:39.89
24 Vladislav Marchenkov RUS 21 53.25 53.38 53.41 2:40.04
25 Joseph Luke Cecchini ITA 29 53.57 53.56 53.13 2:40.26
26 Nicholas Timmings AUS 30 53.99 53.65 53.59 2:41.23
27 Jack Thomas GBR 27 53.55 53.71 54.09 2:41.35
28 Ronald Auderset SUI 26 53.74 54.23 53.43 2:41.40
29 Alexander Hanssen NOR 28 53.89 54.12 53.61 2:41.62
30 Joel Seligstein ISR 34 54.18 53.81 54.17 2:42.16
31 Jeff Bauer LUX 33 54.95 54.50 54.73 2:44.18
32 Bram Zeegers NED 35 55.82 56.18 56.66 2:48.66
33 Joe Della Santina NZL 1 57.54 58.09 57.34 2:52.97
DNS Reynaldo Arturo Sosa MEX 36 58.87 59.16 DNS
DNS Todd Rodriguez Pfalzgraf PUR 3 57.94 64.72 DNS
DNS Ander Mirambell ESP 32 DNS