From La Plagne, FRA
Jan. 10, 2020 – Alexander Tretiakov won his second IBSF World Cup race of the season, opening up a huge first heat lead and hanging on for gold in La Plagne.
The Russian Rocket smashed Martins Dukurs’ track record in the first heat with a blistering 59.28 run. Dukurs answered with a solid second run, and while Tretiakov’s second heat time was close to Dukurs’, the first heat was all he needed to win gold.
Dukurs finished with his third silver medal of the season, a full second ahead of anyone else not named Tretiakov.
Wenqiang Geng won China’s first IBSF World Cup medal with a bronze, tying Korea’s Sungbin Yun for the position. Both men edged out Axel Jungk for the medal, with Jungk settling for fifth.
Geng’s medal was the first IBSF or FIL World Cup medal for China.
Korean Jisoo Kim finished sixth after entering the second heat in contention for a medal for the second straight week.
With his silver medal, Dukurs moves into the World Cup point lead, just 4 points ahead of Tretiakov and 21 points ahead of Jungk.
France was a struggle for the American men. Austin Florian slipped up on his load in the first heat, leaving him 19th after the first run. His second run was decidedly better, and enough to move up to 18th. Teammate Andrew Blaser narrowly missed a second run in 22nd, while Alex Ivanov finished 27th.
Kevin Boyer had his best run of the 2019/2020 season, finishing 16th. Teammate Kyle Murray finished 25th in his first trip to La Plagne on the second Canadian sled.
Great Britain’s Marcus Wyatt finished 14th in La Plagne, dropping one spot in the second heat. Jerry Rice hit hard late in his run, briefly falling off his sled in the process. He finished 20th. Teammate Craig Thompson just missed the second heat in 21st.
Results:
| Pos | Name | Nation | Bib | Start 1 | Start 2 | Run 1 | Run 2 | Total |
| 1 | Alexander Tretiakov | RUS | 12 | 5.62 | 5.62 | 59.28 | 59.62 | 1:58.90 |
| 2 | Martins Dukurs | LAT | 7 | 5.61 | 5.61 | 59.60 | 59.67 | 1:59.27 |
| 3 | Sungbin Yun | KOR | 4 | 5.62 | 5.64 | 60.07 | 60.22 | 2:00.29 |
| 3 | Wenqiang Geng | CHN | 16 | 5.89 | 5.89 | 60.07 | 60.22 | 2:00.29 |
| 5 | Axel Jungk | GER | 13 | 5.72 | 5.76 | 60.02 | 60.29 | 2:00.31 |
| 6 | Jisoo Kim | KOR | 8 | 5.67 | 5.69 | 59.84 | 60.57 | 2:00.41 |
| 7 | Felix Keisinger | GER | 6 | 5.70 | 5.65 | 60.26 | 60.17 | 2:00.43 |
| 8 | Vladyslav Heraskevych | UKR | 19 | 5.92 | 5.93 | 60.26 | 60.25 | 2:00.51 |
| 9 | Evgeniy Rukosuev | RUS | 15 | 5.89 | 5.93 | 60.33 | 60.23 | 2:00.56 |
| 10 | Tomass Dukurs | LAT | 11 | 5.85 | 5.90 | 60.33 | 60.48 | 2:00.81 |
| 11 | Nikita Tregubov | RUS | 5 | 5.79 | 5.80 | 60.34 | 60.48 | 2:00.82 |
| 11 | Seunggi Jung | KOR | 14 | 5.72 | 5.65 | 60.26 | 60.56 | 2:00.82 |
| 13 | Alexander Gassner | GER | 9 | 5.80 | 5.83 | 60.57 | 60.47 | 2:01.04 |
| 14 | Marcus Wyatt | GBR | 10 | 5.67 | 5.64 | 60.41 | 60.65 | 2:01.06 |
| 15 | Wengang Yan | CHN | 17 | 5.76 | 5.83 | 60.60 | 60.65 | 2:01.25 |
| 16 | Kevin Boyer | CAN | 21 | 5.92 | 5.96 | 60.54 | 60.77 | 2:01.31 |
| 17 | Florian Auer | AUT | 22 | 5.90 | 5.84 | 60.79 | 60.61 | 2:01.40 |
| 18 | Austin Florian | USA | 18 | 5.92 | 5.85 | 61.04 | 60.72 | 2:01.76 |
| 19 | Samuel Maier | AUT | 24 | 6.02 | 6.10 | 61.09 | 61.03 | 2:02.12 |
| 20 | Jerry Rice | GBR | 20 | 5.70 | 5.69 | 60.73 | 63.17 | 2:03.90 |
| 21 | Craig Thompson | GBR | 23 | 5.68 | 61.38 | |||
| 22 | Andrew Blaser | USA | 2 | 5.83 | 61.40 | |||
| 23 | Mihai Pacioianu | ROU | 25 | 5.91 | 61.68 | |||
| 24 | Ronald Auderset | SUI | 1 | 5.86 | 61.77 | |||
| 25 | Kyle Murray | CAN | 26 | 5.93 | 61.99 | |||
| 26 | Brendan Doyle | IRL | 27 | 6.07 | 62.14 | |||
| 27 | Alex Ivanov | USA | 3 | 5.98 | 62.78 |
