Mārtiņš Bots / Roberts Plūme and brothers Juris and Andris Šici celebrated their double victory in the last stage of the World Cup in luge in St. Moritz on Saturday.
Content will continue after the ad
Advertising
In the sum of two races, the victory was won by Bots / Plūme, who was 0.064 seconds ahead of the Šicus brothers. The bronze medal was won by the Italians Ludwig Reeder / Patrick Rastner, who were left with 0.207 seconds.
Bots / Plūme unexpectedly achieved the best result from the Latvian crews in the first race, who went last on the track. The youngest Latvian doubles made a good start and was able to develop a high speed in the middle of the track, reaching the finish 0.073 seconds ahead of the Germans Egert / Beneken.
After the German doubles, the third place in the first race was won by the Italians Ludwig Rieder / Patrick Rastner, who lost 0.098 seconds to Bot / Plum.
The Shiche brothers made no mistakes in the first race and finished in fourth place, losing their compatriots 0.120 seconds.
Another two Gudramovičs / Kalniņš showed the ninth best result and conceded 0.417 seconds to the leaders.
Bots / Plūme made a little mistake in the middle of the track in the second race, but showed the second best time at the finish.
Shici had a good second race and was able to increase his lead over Olympic champions Tobias Wendl / Tobias Arlt and finished in first place. In total, they conceded to their compatriots by 0.064 seconds, but won the second place in the overall ranking of all disciplines of the World Cup.
Oskars Gudramovičs / Pēteris Kalniņš showed the 15th time in the second race and ranked tenth in the sum, with the leaders losing 0.908 seconds.
This season, the honor of the leaders of the Latvian national team has been confirmed by Šici, who was crowned the European champions in Sigulda, but a week ago in Königsze he won the third place in the world championships, as well as the second place in the Sprint World Cup. They also helped Artūrs Dārznieks and Kendija Aparjode in Königsze to get to the world championship bronze medal in the team relay and in the Sprint World Cup ranked second in the overall standings of the season.
In Sigulda, the bronze was won by Bots / Plūme, who were on the right to start in the second half of the season after they were superior to Kristen Putins and Imants Marcinkēvičs in the selection competition. Gudramovičs / Kalniņš, on the other hand, achieved the best result of the season in Winterberg, where he was fourth.
For singles, the first trip will start at 12.58, but the second – at 14.32.
Riks Kristens Rozītis will start with the 21st number, Dārznieks with the 23rd number and Gints Bērziņš with the 24th number in the competition of 32 athletes. Latvia’s leading men’s rider Kristers Aparjods is not continuing the season due to an injury.
The women will start on Sunday, as well as the team relay will take place.
The last time the World Cup stage on this track took place was more than nine years ago – in January 2012.
133 sleigh riders from 21 countries have applied for the last World Cup, of which 44 are women, 39 are men and 25 are double crews.
The World Cup season takes place only in Europe.
