The sleigh riders Juris and Andris Šici won the third place in the seventh stage of the World Cup in Germany on Saturday, while Oskars Gudramovičs / Pēteris Kalniņš were also able to break into the top ten, taking the crew in the eighth position.
In the sum of two races, the victory was celebrated by the overall leader Thomas Stoy / Lorenz Koller from Austria, who reached the fourth fastest time in the first race, but set a new track record in the second attempt.
The Austrians were 1.9 seconds ahead of German Olympic champions Tobias Wendl / Tobias Arlt, while the Shici brothers lost a total of 0.016 seconds to the leaders.
Shici improved his start time in the second race, but made a small mistake in the middle of the track and reached the second result in the race.
Gudramovičs / Kalniņš started well in the second race, but in the second half of the track they failed to maintain the advantage over the competitors, as a result of the ninth time in the race. They conceded to the leaders by 0.411 seconds and finished in eighth place.
Mārtiņš Bots / Roberts Plūme made a great start in the second race, but in the middle of the track he made small mistakes and finished in 12th place. In the sum of two races, the crew was 0.670 seconds slower than the Austrians, which allowed them to take the 12th position.
In the first race from the Latvian crews, the best were Šicis, who lost only 0.011 seconds to the home team Vendlam / Arlt and won the second place. Gudramovičs / Kalniņš had a good trip and achieved the sixth best result, the Germans giving in 0.231 seconds.
The third Latvian crew, Bots / Plūme, who took the fifth place in the Nations Cup a day earlier, showed the 11th fastest time on Saturday, finishing 0.387 seconds behind the leaders.
This season, Šici, who was crowned European Champion a week ago in Sigulda, has confirmed the honor of the leaders of the Latvian national team. The new duo Bots / Plūme won a bronze there in Latvia, which was on the right to start in the second half of the season after Kristen Putins / Imants Marcinkēvičs were superior in the selection competition. Gudramovičs / Kalniņš, on the other hand, achieved the best result of the season in Winterberg, where he was fourth.
In the Oberhof stage in December, Šici was sixth, Bots / Plūma took ninth place, but Gudramovičs / Kalniņš fell after the fifth result in the first race in the second race and settled for 19th position. Last season at the Oberhof, Schici was second, but a year before he won third place.
The 556-point World Cup leader is Stoy / Koller, ahead of two German crews, Tony Egert / Sasha Beneken and Tobias Wendl / Tobias Arlts, who have 519 and 508 points respectively. The Šici brothers follow with 433 points, Gudramovičs / Kalniņš with 280 points ranks eighth, while Bots / Plūme with 237 points is two positions lower.
It has already been reported that Gints Bērziņš took the seventh place in the men’s competition in Oberhof on Saturday, which is the best performance of his career. Artūrs Dārznieks ranked 15th, but Riks Kristens Rozītis was in the position below.
On Sunday, a competition for women will take place, in which Latvia will be represented by Kendija Aparjode, Elīza Tīruma and Ulla Zirne. Elīna Ieva Vītola did not reach the finish in the Nations Cup on Friday.
144 athletes from 21 countries have applied for the start in the Oberhof World Cup stage. Among them are 44 women, the same number of men and 28 double crews.
The World Cup season takes place only in Europe.
Continuation of the World Cup season, the competition is still planned in Innsbruck, but at the end of the month, the sleigh riders will return to Königssee, where the world championship will take place. The season finale is scheduled for early February in St. Moritz, where the World Cup has not taken place since January 2012.
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