Emils Cipulis (from the right) and Matīss Miknis surprised many in St. Moritz by very convincingly winning the sixth place in the world championship in the doubles competition.
Photo: Viesturs Lācis/LBSF/IBSF
Gints Narogs, “Latvijas Avīze”, JSC “Latvijas Mediji”
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Before this bobsleigh season in Latvia, there was no shortage of people who shook their heads and muttered that bobsleigh had ended for a while in our country. Oskars Melbārdis has finished his career, Oskars Ķibermanis is recovering after knee surgery, he will miss this season. Only the young guys remained – Emīls Cipulis and Jēkabs Kalenda. Both of them proved on the weekend in Sankt Moritz (Switzerland) that bobsleigh in Latvia is more alive than alive and we can expect great success in the future as well.
For Cipulis and Kalends, this was the first world championship in their careers. Cipulis together with pusher Matīsa Mikni won the sixth place. In the first two races, it was still like a run-in, on the second day both of them showed the third and best time in the last race, cutting the buttons for the Germans. In the overall ranking, it was not possible to get higher than sixth place, however, such a result is still excellent. Last year Cipulis was never in the top ten at that level, but now he is in a stable sixth place.
The calendar is an even bigger surprise. Starting together with Dāvi Springis, both of them cut the buttons of 17 competing crews. An excellent third race from 16th place made it possible to move up to 12th position, but in the end the Monaco crew passed by. Before the world championship, the head coach of the Latvian bobsled national team, Sandis Prūsis, said in an interview to “Latvijas Avīze” that he would be happy if Cipulis fought for the top six, while Kalenda was in the top 20. The coach can now be happy.
“I would say good, even very good. Today we managed everything. Cipulis was twice faster than Friedrich, third and first in races. If you told me before the championship that Cipulis would be stable in the top six, I would answer that it is more than very good. Jēkabs Kalenda, also from Malacca, rode well and steadily in his first major championship, he moved up on the second day,” Prusis is pleased.
For the first time, the German Johannes Lohner became the world champion in doubles, beating his compatriot Francesco Friedrich, who had previously won the main prize of the planet’s master race seven times, by 0.49 seconds in the sum of four races. Bronze for Swiss Michael Vogt. Cipulis was 0.6 seconds behind from the podium.
This weekend, right there in St. Moritz, a four-man race.
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