From Winterleiten, AUT
Jan. 5, 2020 – It had been a long while since Michael Scheikl had won a gold medal on the FIL Natural Track World Cup tour. Though he’d had some close calls, it hadn’t been since Winterleiten in the 2014/2015 season that he’d won an event.
Five years later on the same track as his last gold medal effort, the Austrian once again took the top spot of the podium.
Scheikl held a relatively small advantage over Patrick Pigneter, .14 seconds, going into the second and final heat. Pigneter, needing a perfect run to contend for gold mustered what would become the third quickest run of the second heat, leaving the door wide open for Scheikl.
Scheikl’s second run was even better than his first, .55 faster than anyone else and enough to win gold.
Pigneter held on for second, edging out Thomas Kammerlander, who finished the season opener with a bronze medal.
Italian Alex Gruber finished fourth, well ahead of Florian Glatzl in fifth and Aleksandr Egorov in sixth.
Results:
| Pos | Name | Nation | Bib | Start 1 | Start 2 | Run 1 | Run 2 | Total |
| 1 | Michael Scheikl | AUT | 36 | 9.01 | 8.92 | 1:12.90 | 1:12.68 | 2:25.58 |
| 2 | Patrick Pigneter | ITA | 37 | 8.97 | 9.04 | 1:13.04 | 1:13.43 | 2:26.47 |
| 3 | Thomas Kammerlander | AUT | 39 | 8.92 | 8.99 | 1:13.43 | 1:13.23 | 2:26.66 |
| 4 | Alex Gruber | ITA | 38 | 9.05 | 9.03 | 1:13.32 | 1:13.83 | 2:27.15 |
| 5 | Florian Glatzl | AUT | 35 | 9.02 | 9.03 | 1:14.05 | 1:14.04 | 2:28.09 |
| 6 | Aleksandr Egorov | RUS | 33 | 9.12 | 9.10 | 1:14.38 | 1:14.18 | 2:28.56 |
| 7 | Christian Schopf | AUT | 31 | 8.97 | 8.94 | 1:14.35 | 1:14.69 | 2:29.04 |
| 8 | Stanislav Kovshik | RUS | 30 | 9.22 | 9.33 | 1:14.86 | 1:15.35 | 2:30.42 |
| 9 | Gregory Bukin | RUS | 29 | 9.11 | 9.03 | 1:15.08 | 1:15.34 | 2:30.42 |
| 10 | Florian Clara | ITA | 34 | 9.35 | 9.24 | 1:15.67 | 1:15.03 | 2:30.70 |
| 11 | Iurii Talykh | RUS | 24 | 9.29 | 9.31 | 1:14.65 | 1:17.23 | 2:31.88 |
| 12 | Oliver Schiller | GER | 9 | 9.28 | 9.64 | 1:15.74 | 1:16.57 | 2:32.31 |
| 13 | Josef Limmer | GER | 28 | 9.71 | 9.64 | 1:17.10 | 1:16.62 | 2:33.72 |
| 14 | Myroslav Lenko | UKR | 17 | 9.18 | 9.19 | 1:16.42 | 1:17.40 | 2:33.82 |
| 15 | Adam Jedrzejko | POL | 26 | 9.31 | 9.40 | 1:17.66 | 1:16.43 | 2:34.09 |
| 16 | Isa Guzeloglu | TUR | 8 | 9.40 | 9.52 | 1:17.65 | 1:19.65 | 2:37.30 |
| 17 | Renzo Atance Conde | ARG | 27 | 9.30 | 9.33 | 1:19.31 | 1:18.39 | 2:37.70 |
| 18 | Ivan Lenko | UKR | 12 | 9.58 | 9.45 | 1:18.17 | 1:19.68 | 2:37.85 |
| 19 | Leonardo de Oliveira Silva | BRA | 25 | 9.59 | 9.63 | 1:19.34 | 1:19.61 | 2:38.95 |
| 20 | Aleksandr Milkov | KAZ | 22 | 9.68 | 9.72 | 1:20.88 | 1:22.11 | 2:42.99 |
| 21 | Yusuf Ozcan | TUR | 5 | 9.28 | 9.30 | 1:21.48 | 1:21.55 | 2:43.03 |
| 22 | Denis Lebedev | KAZ | 18 | 9.88 | 9.88 | 1:20.96 | 1:23.07 | 2:44.03 |
| 23 | Konrad Stano | POL | 4 | 10.09 | 10.35 | 1:23.59 | 1:22.66 | 2:46.25 |
| 24 | Szymon Jan Majdak | POL | 10 | 9.71 | 9.61 | 1:21.79 | 1:24.67 | 2:46.46 |
| 25 | Stefan Federer | ITA | 32 | 9.24 | 9.30 | 1:15.48 | 1:33.86 | 2:49.34 |
| 26 | David Rydl | CZE | 23 | 9.62 | 9.55 | 1:26.69 | 1:25.80 | 2:52.49 |
