2019/2020 IBSF European Cup Bobsled Final Points

From Durham, USA

Feb. 3, 2020 – Below are the final standings for the 2019/2020 IBSF European Cup tour, which finished its season in Igls at the end of January. “Finishes” is used instead of starts to denote how many races a pilot received points in. DNFs, DSQs, DNSs do not count toward this total.

2-man Bobsled

In what was the closest points race of the European Cup season, Mihai Tentea held onto the points lead to win the title despite a late charge by Latvia’s Oskars Melbardis. Tentea, started the season off strong, and after a 19th place finish by Melbardis in Winterberg looked to have the title nearly wrapped up. But Melbardis stormed back, winning two golds in the next three races to close the gap to Tentea. In the season finale in Igls, Melbardis finished with a bronze medal and that, coupled with Tentea’s sixth place finish, was enough to give the Romanian junior the 2-man title by five points.

With his title, Tentea became the first male Romanian sliding sport champion at any level since Nicolae Istrate during the 2009/2010 North American Cup 4-man bobsled season.

Switzerland’s Simon Friedli finished third on the season despite missing the season opener in Lillehammer, beating out Russian Junior Rostislav Gaitiukevich by 39 points. Germans Maximilian Illmann and Hans Peter Hannighofer finished fifth and sixth, respectively.

4-man Bobsled

Unlike in 2-man, the 4-man European Cup season was a runaway victory for Germany’s Jonas Jannusch. The German junior had two hiccups, one in the opener in Lillehammer and one in Winterberg, but otherwise won four golds and two silvers on his way to clinching the title with one race to go.

Oskars Melbardis finished the season in second place, 20 points ahead of 2-man champion Mihai Tentea. Like in the 2-man rankings, the positioning of Melbardis and Tentea eventually came down to the finale in Igls, with Melbardis finishing four spots ahead of Tentea to solidify his spot in second overall.

Timo Rohner finished the season in fourth, ten points ahead of Patrick Baumgartner in fifth. Rostislav Gaitiukevich finished sixth, just two points behind the Italian.

Women’s Bobsled

Romanian Andrea Grecu dominated the European Cup women’s bobsled ranks over the 2019/2020 season, winning gold in five of the eight races and winning bronze in the other three. Her margin of victory on the season was over 200 points, and with that she both clinched the women’s bobsled title a race early and became the first Romanian bobsledder since Nicholae Istrate in 2009/2010 North American Cup 4-man season.

Behind her, Germany’s Anne Lobenstein beat out Swiss pilot Melanie Hasler for second, with Hasler edging out Russian Anastasiia Makarova for third.

Margot Boch would have contended for a top three overall finish, but missed the two races in Sigulda. She finished fifth, ahead of Bree Walker of Australia who finished sixth.