December 3, 3:30 p.m.
Updated December 3, 6:05 pm
The winner was the German Axel Jungk, who finished in a minute and 51.71 seconds in the sum of two races, the second place winner was ahead of his compatriot Christopher Grother by 0.11 seconds. Martin lost 0.45 seconds to the winner.
Even before the second trip, Martins took the 3rd place, surpassing his older brother Thomas by one position.
Martina Dukura’s 2nd trip
On Martin’s second run in the middle of the track, the speed of the sledge dropped, but he was able to drive the rest of the way to the finish.
Thomas Dukura’s 2nd trip
Thomas, on the other hand, didn’t make his second run so fast, and even small mistakes cost him enough to lose his chances of staying in the TOP5.
Conversation with Mikhail Arhipov after the 2nd trip
At the end of the competition, the coach of the Latvian national team Mikhail Arhipov admitted in a telephone conversation on Latvian Television that Martin’s speed in the second race had improved in the fourth turn, but praised the athlete for a well-completed lap turn and speed at the bottom of the track. Thomas also had an error and inaccuracies at the bottom of the track in the 4th edition.
In the first race, the Germans proved their superiority – Grother took the lead with a 0.10 second lead over Jungka. Martin was separated from Groth by 0.28 seconds.
Martina Dukura’s 1st trip
Martin had some small inaccuracies in the first race, but not so significant as to prevent the leader of the Latvian national team from entering the top three on his favorite track.
Thomas Dukura’s 1st ride
Thomas started with the 22nd number in the competition of 28 participants and after a slow start he made a good first race, where only a failure at the bottom of the track prevented him from qualifying for a place in the top three. The Dukur brothers were separated by 0.12 seconds after the first trip.
Conversation with Mikhail Arhipov after the 1st trip
Coach Arhipovs told Latvian Television after the first phone call that Martin had to go 4th better, but in general the performance on the fast ice was not bad. Archiphov also praised Thomas’ trip and added that the results already achieved in training allowed him to hope for a good success in the competition.
It has already been reported that the only representative of Latvia in the skeleton for women was the 17th place on Friday.
In the continuation of the stage, men’s bobsleigh doubles will compete on Saturday and women will race in monobobs, while on Sunday the winners will be determined in women’s bobsleigh doubles and foursome for men.
The World Cup stage in Altenberg is taking place for the first time since 2019.
Martins Dukurs started the season in the World Cup with 2nd place in Igles, but in the next race he remained in 11th place on the same track. After the first three stages, Martin is third in the overall standings, while Thomas is in 14th place.
In the eight stages until mid-January in the World Cup season, skeleton and bobsleigh players will also qualify for the Beijing Winter Olympics. The sixth stage of the year will take place in Sigulda.
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