Loch Takes Gold in Sigulda

From Sigulda, LAT

(Jan. 9, 2021) – Felix Loch won his eighth gold medal of the 2020/2021 World Cup season, cruising to victory in an otherwise close race in Sigulda.

Felix Loch (Courtesy FIL TV)

Loch put down the two fastest runs of the race to win by .22 over teammate Johannes Ludwig. On his second run, Loch just missed the track record set by Semen Pavlichenko in 2017 by just .022.

Loch remains undefeated in “classic” World Cup races, with his only loss in the Winterberg sprint race.

Ludwig’s silver was his third silver medal of the year. He edged out Italy’s Dominik Fischnaller for the spot, while Fischnaller finished just .021 ahead of Latvia’s Arturs Darznieks.

For Fischnaller, the bronze medal was his fourth bronze of the season. For Darznieks, fourth place was a career best.

Russia’s Semen Pavlchenko managed a fifth place finish despite hitting the wall hard in both heats, finishing just ahead of Aleksandr Gorbatcevich in sixth.

Tucker West led the way for the United States in 12th place, one spot ahead of teammate Chris Mazdzer in 13th. Jonathan Gustafson finished 15th to round out the American effort.

Austria had an abysmal day, with Jonas Müller crashing out on his second run, and both Reinhard Egger and David Gleirscher being disqualified for runners being too hot. Gleirscher also crashed on his run prior to being disqualified.

Results:

Pos Name Nation Bib Start 1 Start 2 Run 1 Run 2 Total
1 Felix Loch GER 30 4.590 4.574 48.025 47.859 1:35.884
2 Johannes Ludwig GER 27 4.566 4.570 48.069 48.035 1:36.104
3 Dominik Fischnaller ITA 31 4.624 4.632 48.114 48.057 1:36.171
4 Arturs Darznieks LAT 24 4.626 4.621 48.098 48.094 1:36.192
5 Semen Pavlichenko RUS 29 4.589 4.579 48.208 48.047 1:36.255
6 Aleksandr Gorbatcevich RUS 25 4.644 4.629 48.214 48.078 1:36.292
7 Roman Repilov RUS 26 4.595 4.603 48.135 48.168 1:36.303
8 Nico Glerischer AUT 28 4.622 4.609 48.376 48.067 1:36.443
9 Wolfgang Kindl AUT 22 4.655 4.648 48.141 48.357 1:36.498
10 Max Langenhan GER 20 4.597 4.624 48.305 48.272 1:36.577
11 Riks Rozitis LAT 18 4.678 4.693 48.327 48.291 1:36.618
12 Tucker West USA 8 4.614 4.604 48.320 48.368 1:36.688
13 Chris Mazdzer USA 9 4.649 4.640 48.308 48.435 1:36.743
14 Gins Berzins LAT 16 4.680 4.660 48.473 48.295 1:36.768
15 Jonathan Gustafson USA 11 4.631 4.614 48.371 48.428 1:36.799
16 Kevin Fischnaller ITA 19 4.663 4.616 48.485 48.340 1:36.825
17 Andriy Mandziy UKR 10 4.645 4.660 48.380 48.714 1:37.094
18 Jozef Ninis SVK 15 4.694 4.710 48.548 48.627 1:37.175
19 Moritz Bollmann GER 21 4.593 4.583 48.675 48.516 1:37.191
20 Mateusz Sochowicz POL 5 4.646 4.650 48.675 48.693 1:37.314
21 Chris Eißler GER 14 4.579 4.613 48.676 48.678 1:37.354
22 Valentin Cretu ROU 7 4.776 4.705 48.940 48.946 1:37.886
23 Anton Dukach UKR 12 4.627 4.631 48.465 49.812 1:38.277
24 Svante Kohala SWE 6 4.730 4.761 49.116 49.170 1:38.286
25 Lukas Gufler ITA 1 4.699 4.708 49.296 49.081 1:38.377
26 Giorgi Sogoiani GEO 4 4.693 4.706 49.447 49.609 1:39.056
27 Marian Skupek SVK 2 4.777 4.754 50.050 50.867 1:40.917
28 Theodor Turea ROU 3 4.646 4.642 60.325 49.619 1:49.944
DNF Pavel Repilov RUS 17 4.652 4.643 48.833 DNF
DNF Jonas Müller AUT 32 4.624 4.645 48.233 DNF
DSQ Reinhard Egger AUT 13 DSQ
DSQ David Gleirscher AUT 23 DSQ