Italy Wins 1st Doubles Gold Since 2015

January 23, 2021 ken Luge News, News 0

From Igls, AUT

Jan. 23, 2021 – While the race in Igls was close, Ludwig Rieder & Patrick Rastner were the class of the field, putting down two clean and consistent runs on their way to a .081 second victory over Latvians Andris & Juris Sics.

Nagler & Malleier (right) celebrate with Rieder & Rastner (left) (Courtesy FIL TV)

Rieder & Rastner’s first heat was the only one of the day under 39.7 seconds to open up a lead over Germany’s Toni Eggert & Sascha Benecken, with Thomas Steu & Lorenz Koller in the hunt in third. On the second run both teams faltered, allowing Sics & Sics to move up from fifth to second with only the Italians to come. Rieder & Rastner were flawless on their second run, and while their second downtime was just slightly bettered by the Latvians, they had enough in the bank to win gold, with Sics & Sics finishing in second and Steu & Koller in third.

Martins Bots & Roberts Plume finished fourth, ahead of Eggert & Benecken in fifth and Emanuel Rieder & Simon Kainzwaldner in sixth.

The win for Rieder & Rastner was their first career World Cup gold medal, and the first for Italy since December 12, 2015 when Christian OBerstolz & Patrick Gruber won gold in the Park City Sprint World Cup race.

In the World Cup title hunt, Eggert & Benecken had a chance to edge closer to Steu & Koller, but couldn’t find time on the Austrian track in their second run and fell from second to fifth That finish leaves Steu & Koller with a 111 point advantage with a Sprint World Cup race in Igls and a World Cup race in St. Moritz to go. Tobias Wendl & Tobias Arlt are third in the points, but were never a factor in the World Cup race in Igls, finishing ninth.

Tristan Walker & Justin Snith finished 14th, just behind the German team of Robin Geueke &  David Gamm. The Canadians were consistent on both runs, with both runs separated by just .09.

The American duo of Chris Mazdzer & Jayson Terdiman came into the second heat in 12th place and through the halfway point of their run it looked as though they’d be contending for a top ten finish. An issue out of Curve 9 led to a crash out of Curve 11, and while they received a finishing time, they fell to 24th place.

Results:

Pos Names Nation Bib Start 1 Start 2 Run 1 Run 2 Total
1 Rieder / Rastner ITA 23 2.022 2.024 39.677 39.759 1:19.436
2 Sics / Sics LAT 22 2.063 2.048 39.800 39.717 1:19.517
3 Steu / Koller AUT 20 2.047 2.040 39.756 39.764 1:19.520
4 Bots / Plume LAT 15 2.050 2.058 39.780 39.772 1:19.552
5 Eggert / Benecken GER 21 2.057 2.063 39.750 39.811 1:19.561
6 Rieder / Kainzwaldner ITA 13 2.044 2.044 39.853 39.818 1:19.671
7 Nagler / Malleier ITA 17 2.032 2.028 39.832 39.883 1:19.715
8 Müller / Frauscher AUT 24 2.106 2.078 39.885 39.874 1:19.759
9 Wendl / Arlt GER 19 2.033 2.042 39.929 39.881 1:19.810
10 Gudramovics / Kalnins LAT 16 2.090 2.092 39.933 39.907 1:19.840
11 Denisev / Antonov RUS 9 2.054 2.069 39.956 39.965 1:19.921
12 Kashkin / Korshunov RUS 18 2.083 2.080 39.997 39.959 1:19.956
13 Geueke / Gamm GER 14 2.052 2.048 40.050 39.999 1:20.049
14 Walker / Snith CAN 12 2.074 2.049 40.004 40.095 1:20.099
15 Chmielewski / Kowalewski POL 10 2.058 2.060 40.162 40.010 1:20.172
16 Buchnev / Kilseev RUS 8 2.073 2.068 40.340 40.207 1:20.547
17 Vavercak / Zmij SVK 7 2.092 2.105 40.301 40.261 1:20.562
18 Park / Cho KOR 6 2.097 2.098 40.253 40.372 1:20.625
19 Gitlan / Serban ROU 5 2.124 2.117 40.275 40.396 1:20.671
20 Handaric / Ailenei ROU 4 2.179 2.148 40.391 40.455 1:20.846
21 Stakhiv / Lysetskyi UKR 3 2.148 2.116 40.524 40.462 1:20.986
22 Hoi / Levkovych UKR 1 2.144 2.132 40.713 40.925 1:21.638
23 Turea / Motzcza ROU 2 2.116 2.110 40.809 41.743 1:22.552
24 Mazdzer / Terdiman USA 11 2.073 2.069 39.962 44.198 1:24.160