Records Fall in Lake Placid, Müller Wins Gold

From Lake Placid, USA

Dec. 1, 2019 – In the FIL World Cup season opener, Jonas Müller had the standout performance on his home track in Austria. A week later, he once again found himself atop the podium, this time in Lake Placid.

Men’s podium (L-R: West, Müller, Fischnaller) Courtesy FIL TV

After the first heat, Müller found himself in the midst of a tight battle for the lead. The Austrian sat third, only .17 behind leader Tucker West, with Roman Repilov in second between them. In the second heat Müller out-slid both West and Repilov on his way to his second gold medal in as many weeks, with West edging out Dominik Fischnaller for silver. Fischnaller finished third.

Repilov struggled on his second run and finished fourth, with Kristers Aparjods and Semen Pavlichenko tying for fifth.

The race was the fastest that Lake Placid has ever seen.

In the first run, Chris Mazdzer broke the track record held by Roman Repilov. His time of 50.634 stood for about 20 minutes until teammate Tucker West put down a 50.604 to take over both the lead and the record. By the end of the first heat the top nine had all broken the old record, with 16 of the 20 fastest runs ever on the Lake Placid track taking place in the first run.*

At the top of the track, Jonny Gustafson broke the start record, previously held by Semen Pavlichenko. That time held until Pavlichenko came back and took that time back with a 6.300

It was a very solid day on home ice for the Americans. Mazdzer came into the second heat in fourth place, but one skid through the track’s chicane dropped him to seventh, while Jonny Gustafson finished 15th, putting all three men in the Sprint World Cup event later int he afternoon.

Reid Watts finished 17th as the lone Canadian in the field.

* Statistic provided by the Associated Press’ Tim Reynolds

Results:

Pos Name Nation Bib Start 1 Start 2 Run 1 Run 2 Total
1 Jonas Müller AUT 26 6.386 6.374 50.624 50.813 1:41.437
2 Tucker West USA 22 6.403 6.390 50.607 50.851 1:41.458
3 Dominik Fischnaller ITA 29 6.376 6.373 50.769 50.720 1:41.489
4 Roman Repilov RUS 27 6.366 6.397 50.612 50.909 1:41.521
5 Kristers Aparjods LAT 28 6.394 6.363 50.765 50.922 1:41.687
5 Semen Pavlichenko RUS 31 6.300 6.313 50.924 50.763 1:41.687
7 Chris Mazdzer USA 13 6.441 6.428 50.634 51.120 1:41.754
8 Kevin Fischnaller ITA 14 6.423 6.462 50.795 50.991 1:41.786
9 Max Langenhan GER 17 6.408 6.398 50.940 50.891 1:41.831
10 Wolfgang Kindl AUT 25 6.480 6.449 50.796 51.037 1:41.833
11 Reinhard Egger AUT 20 6.424 6.447 50.874 50.976 1:41.850
12 Felix Loch GER 32 6.404 6.330 50.980 50.884 1:41.864
13 Maksim Aravin RUS 18 6.464 6.465 50.922 51.040 1:41.962
14 Johannes Ludwig GER 21 6.360 6.356 51.042 50.939 1:41.981
15 Jonathan Gustafson USA 15 6.342 6.352 50.907 51.098 1:42.005
16 Riks Rozitis LAT 10 6.500 6.480 51.004 51.088 1:42.092
17 Reid Watts CAN 12 6.447 6.481 50.963 51.367 1:42.330
18 Nico Gleirscher AUT 30 6.416 6.381 51.227 51.109 1:42.336
19 Moritz Bollmann GER 11 6.471 6.458 51.126 51.329 1:42.455
20 Mateusz Sochowicz POL 8 6.490 6.391 51.311 51.254 1:42.565
21 David Gleirscher AUT 24 6.397 6.425 51.804 50.796 1:42.600
22 Alexander Ferlazzo AUS 9 6.396 6.423 51.504 51.286 1:42.790
23 Lukas Gufler ITA 2 6.601 6.542 51.465 51.466 1:42.931
24 Valentin Cretu ROU 5 6.478 6.432 51.370 51.805 1:43.175
25 Sebastian Bley GER 19 6.415 6.412 52.036 51.189 1:43.225
26 Jakub Simonak SVK 4 6.350 6.366 51.657 51.570 1:43.227
27 Aleksandr Stepichev RUS 3 6.441 6.412 53.601 52.180 1:45.781
DNF Inars Kivlenieks LAT 23 6.388 6.364 50.977 DNF DNF
DNF Jozef Ninis SVK 7 6.518 DNF DNF
DSQ Anton Dukach UKR 1 6.542 6.466 51.364 51.705 DSQ
DSQ Aleksandr Gorbatcevich RUS 16 6.380 6.264 51.934 50.984 DSQ
DSQ Andriy Mandziy UKR 6 6.444 6.439 52.456 DSQ DSQ