Martin Dukurs conceded to the winner Alexander Tretyakov from Russia in the sum of two races by 0.07 seconds. The Latvian skeletonist had won 13 races in a row on this track.
Martins completed a successful race, finishing in 52.64 seconds. The German Christopher Grother was nine hundredths of a second behind, two-hundredths of a second behind the two Olympic champions Sunbin Jun from South Korea and Tretyakov, and a second of the German Aksel Jungk.
T. Dukurs lost 0.41 seconds to his brother, which gave him the 15th position after the first race.
Tretyakov showed an excellent performance in the second race, winning in 0.17 seconds and beating M. Dukurs by seven hundredths of a second. Although the Latvian athlete improved his result by 0.14 seconds in the second race, he failed to defend the first place.
Grother took the third position, losing 0.16 seconds to Tretyakov, and his compatriot Jungks remained 0.18 seconds behind the podium. Vladislav Semyonov, a Russian, was fifth with a deficit of 0.39 seconds, but Jun finished in the first six, which was a tenth of a second slower.
T. Dukurs lost 0.79 seconds to Tretyakov, but one tenth of a second better result would have given him the 12th position.
The Chinese host of the Beijing Olympics was not higher than the 12th place, but Wenhao Chen showed the second best time in the first race.
Martin Dukurs cannot be called a particularly successful last season. He won the World Cup for the tenth time in his career, winning the first four stages, but won silver in the European Championship for 11 consecutive gold medals, and had to settle for only 16th place at the World Championships in Altenberg, Germany.
Meanwhile, Thomas Dukurs, once climbing the podium in Sigulda, finished third in the overall World Cup standings. He took sixth place in the European Championship and seventh in the World Championship.
Last season, two races were held at the Innsbruck track, both winning for Martin, the first of which was shared by Alexander Tretyakov of the Russian Bobsleigh Federation (FBR). Thomas Dukurs took the tenth and eighth position on the awkward and short track, respectively, due to the start run.
For women, the first trip will start when it will be in Latvia at 15.30, but the second – an hour and a half later. The first race on the Andy Steel track will be the last of the 25 participants.
Since 2006, the International Federation of Bobsleigh and Skeletons (IBSF) has been hosting the World Cup stages together, distributing five sets of medals in one stage: a skeleton for ladies and gentlemen, a bobsleigh for men in doubles and fours, and a bobsled for two.
The second stage of the World Cup will also take place next weekend at the Innsbruck track. The next three stages will take place on the German tracks – in Altenberg, Winterberg and again in Altenberg, but the new year teams will welcome in Sigulda. Then there will be another stage of the World Cup in Winterberg, and the last stage will take place in mid-January in St. Moritz, Switzerland, also awarding the European Championship medals. The end of the season is scheduled for the Beijing Olympics in February.
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