From Altenberg, GER
(December 3, 2021) – Axel Jungk missed the better part of the 2020/2021 season after coming back from injury. He competed in only two races, an Intercontinental Cup race and one World Cup race. This season he’s made a return to sliding form, and in Altenberg he won gold.
The first heat belonged to Jungk’s teammate, Christopher Grotheer. Grotheer bettered his own track record with a 51.77 run to take the lead over Jungk, while Martins and Tomass Dukurs sat in third and fourth behind him.
On the second run it was Jungk who put down the quick time of the heat, only .07 off of Grotheer’s track record, and while Grotheer had another clean run he lacked the pace that Jungk had. When Grotheer crossed the line he was .11 behind Jungk, good enough for silver.
The gold for Jungk was his first since the 2019/2020 season, where he won gold in Lake Placid, and his third overall. Grotheer’s silver was his first ever.
Martins Dukurs finished third, well behind the two GErmans but also well ahead of anyone else behind him.
Russia’s Vladislav Semenov and Nikita Tregubov both made major gains on their second runs to finish fourth and fifth, with Semenov up from seventh place and Tregubov from tenth. Alexander Gassner jumped up from eighth to finish sixth.
John Daly was the top-scoring American men’s slider in 20th place. Teammate Austin Florian had an easy top ten run going in the first heat, but crashed in the last curve. He slid across the finish line alongside of his sled, but still finished tied for 22nd with Seunggi Jung.
Great Britain’s Matt Weston had a top five run going on his second run, but lost it late and fell to 12th, two spots ahead of teammate Marcus Wyatt in 14th. Craig Thompson was the first man out of the second heat in 21st.
In the most shocking run of the day, 2018 Olympic champion Sungbin Yun failed to make the second run after a 26th place run in the first heat. Yun’s run appeared to be mostly fine, but he had no speed to speak of and found himself out of the second heat for the first time in his career.
Australia’s Nick Timmings scored a career-best 19th place finish, while Canada’s Mark Lynch finished 25th, one spot ahead of Yun.
Results:
| Pos | Name | Nation | Bib | Start 1 | Start 2 | Run 1 | Run 2 | Total |
| 1 | Axel Jungk | GER | 8 | 5.07 | 5.03 | 55.87 | 55.84 | 1:51.71 |
| 2 | Christopher Grotheer | GER | 9 | 5.05 | 5.02 | 55.77 | 56.05 | 1:51.82 |
| 3 | Martins Dukurs | LAT | 6 | 4.97 | 4.95 | 56.05 | 56.11 | 1:52.16 |
| 4 | Vladislav Semenov | RUS | 4 | 5.08 | 5.02 | 56.33 | 56.24 | 1:52.57 |
| 5 | Nikita Tregubov | RUS | 5 | 5.00 | 5.00 | 56.39 | 56.20 | 1:52.59 |
| 6 | Alexander Gassner | GER | 18 | 5.09 | 5.13 | 56.34 | 56.39 | 1:52.73 |
| 7 | Tomass Dukurs | LAT | 22 | 5.09 | 5.07 | 56.17 | 56.58 | 1:52.75 |
| 8 | Wenqiang Geng | CHN | 12 | 5.12 | 5.06 | 56.38 | 56.39 | 1:52.77 |
| 9 | Alexander Tretiakov | RUS | 10 | 4.95 | 4.92 | 56.42 | 56.36 | 1:52.78 |
| 10 | Vladyslav Heraskevych | UKR | 26 | 5.19 | 5.14 | 56.50 | 56.31 | 1:52.81 |
| 11 | Mattia Gaspari | ITA | 21 | 5.10 | 5.09 | 56.43 | 56.47 | 1:52.90 |
| 12 | Matt Weston | GBR | 11 | 5.01 | 4.95 | 56.20 | 56.73 | 1:52.93 |
| 13 | Samuel Maier | AUT | 17 | 5.26 | 5.25 | 56.29 | 56.72 | 1:53.01 |
| 14 | Marcus Wyatt | GBR | 15 | 4.98 | 4.97 | 56.44 | 56.73 | 1:53.17 |
| 15 | Amedeo Bagnis | ITA | 20 | 4.98 | 5.01 | 56.75 | 56.89 | 1:53.64 |
| 16 | Jisoo Kim | KOR | 14 | 4.96 | 4.94 | 56.73 | 56.98 | 1:53.71 |
| 17 | Wenhao Chen | CHN | 19 | 4.98 | 5.00 | 56.67 | 57.06 | 1:53.73 |
| 18 | Ronald Auderset | SUI | 2 | 5.08 | 5.08 | 56.90 | 57.09 | 1:53.99 |
| 19 | Nicholas Timmings | AUS | 24 | 5.22 | 5.23 | 57.10 | 57.09 | 1:54.19 |
| 20 | John Daly | USA | 3 | 5.20 | 5.21 | 57.18 | 57.32 | 1:54.50 |
| 21 | Craig Thompson | GBR | 23 | 4.94 | 57.27 | |||
| 22 | Seunggi Jung | KOR | 7 | 4.94 | 57.30 | |||
| 22 | Austin Florian | USA | 25 | 5.00 | 57.30 | |||
| 24 | Florian Auer | AUT | 1 | 5.27 | 57.31 | |||
| 25 | Mark Lynch | CAN | 27 | 5.28 | 57.37 | |||
| 26 | Sungbin Yun | KOR | 13 | 4.97 | 57.43 | |||
| 27 | Basil Sieber | SUI | 28 | 5.27 | 57.54 | |||
| 28 | Wengang Yan | CHN | 16 | 5.07 | 57.74 |
