From Lillehammer, NOR
Nov. 23, 2019 – The big story of the European Cup season was going to be Oskars Melbardis and his return to action. The Latvian Olympic 4-man gold and 2-man bronze medalist was making his return to action after being sidelined for a full season with back trouble.
Then Maximillian Illmann showed up and stole the show in his first ever IBSF international competition.
Romanian Mihai Tentea was looking to win his first European Cup gold medal, leading after one run over Michael Kuonen and Timo Rohner. Melbardis sat fourth, with Russian Rostislav Gaitiukevich and Hans Peter Hannighofer all within a tenth of a second of the lead.
On the second run Illmann threw down the quickest run of the heat, putting the pressure on the six pilots ahead of him. Sled after sled came down, none matching the time set by the IBSF rookie.
When the dust had cleared, Illmann stood atop the podium as the winner, just .11 ahead of Melbardis and .12 ahead of Tentea.
Germany’s Jonas Jannusch came into the second heat tied with Illmann and finished fourth, ahead of Rohner and Kuonen.
Great Britain’s Brad Hall had the third quickest start in the first heat but had problems late in his run and finished 21st.
Results:
| Pos | Names | Nation | Bib | Start 1 | Start 2 | Run 1 | Run 2 | Total |
| 1 | Illmann / Fleischhauer | GER | 22 | 5.06 | 5.06 | 52.62 | 52.57 | 1:45.19 |
| 2 | Melbardis / Dambis | LAT | 11 | 5.09 | 5.09 | 52.51 | 52.79 | 1:45.30 |
| 3 | Tentea / Daroczi | ROU | 5 | 5.09 | 5.06 | 52.47 | 52.84 | 1:45.31 |
| 4 | Jannusch / Kornhardt | GER | 9 | 5.11 | 5.10 | 52.62 | 52.74 | 1:45.36 |
| 5 | Rohner / Giumma | SUI | 4 | 5.13 | 5.13 | 52.50 | 52.89 | 1:45.39 |
| 6 | Kuonen / Tanner | SUI | 10 | 5.00 | 5.03 | 52.49 | 53.01 | 1:45.50 |
| 7 | Hannighofer / Schwenzfeier | GER | 8 | 5.02 | 5.00 | 52.57 | 52.96 | 1:45.53 |
| 8 | Gaitiukevich / Zarhovtsev | RUS | 6 | 5.00 | 5.00 | 52.55 | 53.07 | 1:45.62 |
| 9 | Heinrich / Laporal | FRA | 12 | 5.13 | 5.09 | 52.65 | 53.07 | 1:45.72 |
| 10 | Moulinier / Vogel | SUI | 15 | 5.13 | 5.12 | 52.89 | 53.10 | 1:45.99 |
| 11 | Bredikhin / Travkin | RUS | 7 | 5.09 | 5.12 | 52.82 | 53.32 | 1:46.14 |
| 12 | Kaufmanis / Bebriss | LAT | 16 | 5.10 | 5.10 | 52.97 | 53.24 | 1:46.21 |
| 13 | Follador / Nikpalj | SUI | 17 | 5.09 | 5.10 | 53.06 | 53.28 | 1:46.34 |
| 14 | Baumgartner / Fierro | ITA | 14 | 5.31 | 5.31 | 53.12 | 53.36 | 1:46.48 |
| 15 | Babris / Nemme | LAT | 1 | 5.03 | 5.03 | 53.20 | 53.34 | 1:46.54 |
| 16 | Shinohara / Kaneko | JPN | 3 | 5.13 | 5.13 | 53.18 | 53.55 | 1:46.73 |
| 17 | Sasaki / Homma | JPN | 18 | 5.17 | 5.20 | 53.40 | 53.47 | 1:46.87 |
| 18 | Variola / Verginer | ITA | 20 | 5.15 | 5.18 | 53.41 | 53.62 | 1:47.03 |
| 19 | Cipulis / Kleinberges | LAT | 24 | 5.05 | 5.11 | 53.42 | 53.69 | 1:47.11 |
| 20 | Takahashi / Shishido | JPN | 19 | 5.22 | 54.20 | |||
| 21 | Hall / Blanchet | GBR | 13 | 5.02 | 54.29 | |||
| 22 | Ohanlon / Williamson | AUS | 21 | 5.31 | 55.50 | |||
| 23 | Tomas / Vidar | NOR | 23 | 5.79 | 57.05 | |||
| DNF | Ughi / Atchori Essoh | ITA | 2 | 5.16 | 5.21 | 54.04 | DNF |
