Müller Edges Repilov for Home Track Gold

From Igls, AUT

Nov. 24, 2019 – On a warm day in Igls Jonas Müller took gold on his home track to open the 2019/2020 men’s luge season, fighting off both quickly changing track conditions and a great run by Roman Repilov in the process.

Jonas Müller’s gold medal run (Courtesy FIL TV)

It looked like it was going to be a repeat of the women’s race, where Tatyana Ivanova moved up from 13th place to take gold as the track deteriorated beneath every challenger after her. Roman Repilov had a disappointing first run, leaving him 16th going into the second heat. His second run was the quickest of the heat, and came at a point just before the sun popped out and almost immediately slowed the track down.

The next 14 men all gave it their best efforts, with Dominik Fischnaller putting down what looked to be a nearly perfect run, only to fall one spot behind the Russian with only a few sleds to go.

After Felix Loch failed to find speed down the track and Aleksandr Gorbatcevich crashed, that left Müller as the lone athlete between Repilov and gold.

Müller’s start was nearly equal to his first heat’s run. His time on his second run was slightly quicker, nowhere near the jump in time that Repilov had, but it was enough to keep the Austrian ahead of Repilov for the gold medal.

Repilov won silver from 16th in the first heat, while Fischnaller finished third, moving up from fourth in the first heat.

Nico Gleirscher made a big jump in the standings, going from ninth to fourth, edging out teammate Wolfgang Kindl to put three Austrian sleds in the top five. Felix Loch rounded out the top six.

American Chris Mazdzer got off to a solid start to his 2019/2020 singles season with a tenth place finish. Tucker West finished 17th in his first effort of the season, edging out Reinhard Egger by .001 for the position. while US national champion Jonny Gustafson finished 25th after a mistake in his second run.

Reid Watts finished 19th as the lone Canadian in the field.

Results:

Pos Name Nation Bib Start 1 Start 2 Run 1 Run 2 Total
1 Jonas Müller AUT 20 5.423 5.429 50.539 50.476 1:41.015
2 Roman Repilov RUS 29 5.428 5.406 50.779 50.383 1:41.162
3 Dominik Fischnaller ITA 32 5.424 5.443 50.659 50.548 1:41.207
4 Nico Gleirscher AUT 18 5.455 5.443 50.715 50.534 1:41.249
5 Wolfgang Kindl AUT 21 5.506 5.472 50.659 50.606 1:41.265
6 Felix Loch GER 27 5.446 4.429 50.637 50.644 1:41.281
7 Semen Pavlichenko RUS 28 5.413 5.401 50.737 50.603 1:41.340
8 Sebastian Bley GER 25 5.440 5.457 50.998 50.461 1:41.459
9 David Gleirscher AUT 23 5.451 5.456 50.753 50.718 1:41.471
10 Chris Mazdzer USA 14 5.474 5.494 50.707 50.769 1:41.476
11 Inars Kivlenieks LAT 22 5.413 5.418 50.720 50.764 1:41.484
12 Max Langenhan GER 9 5.450 5.452 50.728 50.764 1:41.492
13 Jozef Ninis SVK 11 5.504 5.515 50.688 50.863 1:41.551
14 Arturs Darznieks LAT 17 5.491 5.458 50.818 50.741 1:41.559
15 Johannes Ludwig GER 30 5.393 5.381 51.041 50.606 1:41.647
16 Riks Kristens Rozitis LAT 15 5.565 5.576 50.759 50.903 1:41.662
17 Tucker West USA 2 5.449 5.465 50.970 50.777 1:41.747
18 Reinhard Egger AUT 31 5.471 5.493 50.771 50.977 1:41.748
19 Reid Watts CAN 13 5.519 5.498 50.841 50.916 1:41.757
20 Kevin Fischnaller ITA 19 5.487 5.536 50.686 51.168 1:41.854
21 Leon Felderer ITA 5 5.473 5.474 50.987 50.880 1:41.867
22 Moritz Elias Bollmann GER 12 5.463 5.487 51.223 50.816 1:42.039
23 Mateusz Pawel Sochowicz POL 10 5.474 5.465 51.312 50.865 1:42.177
24 Jakub Simonak SVK 7 5.435 5.429 51.126 51.054 1:42.180
25 Jonathan Gustafson USA 16 5.460 5.464 50.927 51.289 1:42.216
26 Valentin Cretu ROU 4 5.459 5.482 51.299 51.020 1:42.319
27 Anton Dukach UKR 3 5.482 5.544 51.082 51.309 1:42.391
28 Lukas Gufler ITA 1 5.555 5.562 51.570 50.870 1:42.440
29 Andriy Mandziy UKR 6 5.497 5.489 51.078 51.556 1:42.634
30 Maksim Aravin RUS 24 5.506 5.504 51.935 51.015 1:42.950
31 Kristers Aparjods LAT 26 5.458 5.441 53.403 50.357 1:43.760
32 Aleksandr Gorbatcevich RUS 8 5.465 5.467 50.618 53.602 1:44.220