Sledding for doubles
In the final stage of the Sprint World Cup in Austria in doubles won the Latvian duo Juris and Andris Šici, ranking second in the overall standings of the season. The Shichi brothers finished the track in 29,958 seconds and were 0.001 second ahead of the Austrians, Thomas Stey and Lorenz Collier. The third place was taken by the Germans Tony Egerts and Sasha Beneken, who overtook the Latvian duos Oskars Gudramovičs / Pēteris Kalniņš and Mārtiņš Bots / Roberts Plūme. The brothers Šici took the second place in the sum of three stages.
As Gudramovičs / Kalniņš went on the track for the sixth time, made a good trip and at that time ranked first. As on the 12th track, Bots / Plum went and followed the compatriots immediately. Brothers Juris and Andris Šici started with the penultimate number 14, who, being driven along the entire track, were one thousandth ahead of the homeowners, who later turned out to be the winners.
It has already been reported that the Russian Semyon Pavlichenko won the Sprint Cup for men, finishing after 32,341 seconds. He was 0.080 seconds ahead of Italian athlete Kevin Fischnaller, but another seven thousandths slower was German Felix Lohs.
The best Latvian athlete Gints Bērziņš ranked 11th with 0.293 seconds behind the Russian athlete, but Riks Kristens Rozītis lost 0.341 seconds to the winner and finished in 15th place.
In the Women’s World Cup on Sunday, in the sum of two races, Eliza Tīruma took the 13th place, followed by Kendija Aparjode. Elīna Ieva Vītola was in 16th place, but Ulla Zirne was in 18th place.
On Saturday Bērziņš was ranked ninth in the individual competition. instead, but Rozītis – 15. The Shici brothers qualified for the Sprint Cup, winning silver on Saturday, while Bots / Plum took the fourth position. Gudramovičs / Kalniņš was in the tenth position.
Prior to this Sprint Cup competition, the International Luge Federation (FIL) made changes evaluation system. The points won in the sprint competition will be included in the World Cup overall rating, but the Sprint Cup overall rating will include all athletes, not just those who have started in all three stages.
In the first Sprint Cup of the season, Latvia was represented by the injured Kristers Aparjods and Artūrs Dārznieks. Aparjods showed the highest result, finishing in tenth place. The field was fourth in the first Sprint Cup, Aparjode was in tenth place, but Zirne finished three positions below. Meanwhile, in the doubles competition, Šici won silver prizes, but Gudramovičs / Kalniņš settled for ninth place. Bots / Plum was in position 13.
In the second stage of the Sprint Cup, Field between the ladies was sixth, Rozitis 14th. place while Shichi ranked seventh. 50 men, 48 women and 29 crews from 24 countries have applied for the start of the Iglesia track in Innsbruck during the World Cup stage. The World Cup season takes place only in Europe.
At the end of the month, sleigh riders in Königssee will compete for World Cup medals, but the season finale scheduled for early February in St. Moritz, where the World Cup has not taken place since January 2012.
Bobsleigh for four
In the third quartet of the World Cup, Latvian pilot Oskars Melbārdis took the sixth place in the quadruple. For the third time in the season, the team of the German Francesco Friedrich won, which finished in a minute and 37.45 seconds. Friedrich was 0.39 seconds ahead of the Austrian Benjamin Maier-piloted foursome and 0.52 seconds ahead of his compatriot Johannes Lohner.
After the ninth place in the first race, Melbārdis was able to rise three places higher, taking the sixth place and 0.97 seconds behind Friedrich. In the first race, Melbard had some small mistakes on the track, but the curved straight line was driven with four rebounds, which gave the ninth place in the race 0.61 seconds behind the leaders – a four-wheeler led by German pilot Francesco Friedrich.
In the first race, Friedrich was 0.29 seconds ahead of the crew led by his compatriot Christoph Hafer and by another two hundredths of a second – the Austrian Benjamin Maier. Melbārdis performed his second trip in worse weather conditions, with wet snowfall, almost perfectly, surpassing Canadian Christopher Spring, Russian Rostislav Gaitjukevich and British Breda Hal in the sum of two trips. 22 fours took part in the competition.
The leader of the World Cup overall with 675 points is Friedrich, Maier follows with 620 points, while Canadian Crypt of Canada has scored 594 points. Melbārdis with the 360 points gained in two competitions takes the tenth place, but Ralfs Bērziņš, who started in one stage, has accumulated 68 points and takes the 24th position in the competition of 25 pilots.
On Saturday, the crews of Melbārzs and Oskars Ķibermanis took part in the doubles competition, but on Sunday, only the Olympic champion Melbārdis represented Latvia in the doubles competition.
Melbards was helped at this stage by pushers Dāvis Spriņģis, Matīss Miknis and Krists Lindenblats, for whom this was only the second four-a-side competition. The Latvian crew went to the track with number 17.
Ķibermanis still continues to heal the caviar muscle injury, as a result of which he
Other Latvian athletes this week will be able to test their skills in the quadruple competition of the World Championships in February. At the end of the World Junior Championships, where the World U23 Championships take place. On Friday in the U23 competition for vice-champions, pilot Dāvis Kaufmanis and pusher Ivo Dan Kleinbergs were crowned.
This is the home track for German Johannes Lohner, but his compatriot Francesco Friedrich has said he would prefer to drive on 15 other tracks than in Königsze.
Melbārdis had participated in only one quadruple race on the St. Moritz track this season, where he managed to win the fifth place. In Winterberg, where the European Championships took place in parallel with the World Cup stage, the Latvians did not start, because the presence of Covid-19 was previously determined in the national team. In the quartet competition in the World Cup, Melbārdis entered the podium for the last time on the track in Königsze in 2018, winning silver. The first medal on this track – bronze – was won by an experienced pilot in 2009, but later he won the same award in 2015.
Last season, Melbārdis did not start in the World Cup. Last season, Friedrich won the quadruple race on the track in Königsze, followed by Lohner, and Justin Krips won the bronze medal. Kiberman was in fourth place and was separated from bronze by 0.16 seconds.
Since 2006 International Bobsleigh and the Skeleton Federation organize the stages of the World Cup together, distributing five sets of medals in one stage – in the skeleton for ladies and gentlemen, in bobsleigh for men in doubles and fours, and for bobsleighs in doubles.
It is true that the Sigulda track is currently not suitable for bobsleigh quad competitions, therefore two men’s doubles competitions took place in Latvia in one stage. And also in two weeks of competition in Innsbruck, bobsleighers played two competitions for two every week.
After the stage, the World Cup will end in Königsee In Innsbruck, which has replaced the 2022 Beijing Olympic Games on the calendar. After that, the medals of the world championships will be awarded in Altenberg.
Luge for women
In the eighth stage of the World Cup in Austria, the highest place among four Latvian athletes was won by Eliza Tīruma, ranking 13th and qualifying for the Sprint Cup together with Kendy Aparjodi. The second victory in a row was celebrated by the German Natalia Geizenberger, who was ahead of her compatriot Julia Taubica by 0.082 seconds, and the American Sammer Bricher – by 0.286 seconds.
13th place with 0.676 seconds behind Geizenberger was taken by Tīruma, as Aparjode took the next three thousandths of a second behind Tīruma. 16th place this time Elīna Ieva Vītola (+0.737 seconds), 18th – Zirne (+0.777).
The best after the first race from Latvians was Aparjode, who took the eighth place, almost three tenths of a second behind the leader Geizenberger. The 11th place was taken by Tīruma, who was 32 thousandths of a second behind Aparjode, the 17th was Vītola, who lost more than 0.4 seconds to the Germans, but two places lower – Zirne, who lost 15 thousandths of a thousandth to Vītola.
After the first race, Geizenberger was 0.052 seconds ahead of Taubica and 0.172 seconds ahead of Bricher. The second race was excellent for Zirne, whose result in the first race would have been the eighth fastest. Vītola also drove well, who with a small mistake at the bottom of the track gave way to the well-done American Emilija Svīna, but both Latvian athletes overtook the Austrian Liza Šulti. Later, Vītola also overtook the Austrian Hannu Proka, but he was missing one place and a thousandth of a second for entering the Sprint World Cup.
Tīruma did worse than the first race, retreating to the 14th place, but Aparjode’s mistake at the bottom of the track allowed him to climb one place higher, Aparjode slipping to the 14th position. In total, 28 athletes competed in the women’s competition.
Zirne, Vītola and Aparjode ensured their participation in the World Cup stage through the Nations Cup. or qualification. Aparjode celebrated the victory in the Cup of Nations on Friday, while Vītola and Zirne ranked seventh and eighth, respectively. The first of the Latvian athletes went to the track Zirne, who was awarded the tenth number. Immediately behind her, Vītols started, Aparjode was given the 17th start number, but Tīruma – 23.
This season by one bronze medal is for both Pure and Aparjode. The third place in the field was won in Winterberg, and Aparjode – in Oberhof. The highest achievement for Peas this season is the seventh place in the World Cup stage in Sigulda, which was also the European Championship. Vītola was the highest among Latvians in Sigulda, where he took the fifth place.
In the last stage, Zirne was the best, in ninth place, Field was three positions lower, but Aparjode took 14th place.
This season in Austria had already taken place one competition – the first stage of the season. At this stage, Aparjode finished behind the top ten, immediately behind her in the Field, while Zirne finished the top fifteen. Sigita Bērziņa also started at this stage, taking the 23rd place. The last stage of the Sprint Cup of the season will also take place in Austria on Sunday.
FIL) made changes to the rating system. The points won in the sprint competition will be included in the World Cup overall rating, but the Sprint Cup overall rating will include all athletes, not just those who have started in all three stages. In the men’s competition Latvia is represented in the Sprint Cup by Riks Kristens Rozītis and Gints Bērziņš, but three crews participate in doubles – brothers Juris and Andris Šici, Mārtiņš Bots / Roberts Plūme, as well as Oskars Gudramovičs / Pēteris Kalniņš.
Bērziņš took the ninth place in the individual competition on Saturday, but Rozītis – 15. The Shici brothers qualified for the Sprint Cup, winning silver on Saturday, while Bots / Plum was in the fourth position. In the tenth position was Gudramovich / Kalnins. In the first Sprint Cup of the season, Latvia was represented by the injured Kristers Aparjods and Artūrs Dārznieks. Aparjods showed the highest result, finishing in the tenth place.
In the first Sprint Cup of the field was fourth, Aparjode took the tenth place, but Zirne finished three positions below. Meanwhile, in the doubles competition, Šici won silver prizes, but Gudramovičs / Kalniņš settled for ninth place. Bots / Plum was in position 13.
In the second stage of the Sprint Cup, Field between the ladies was sixth, Rozitis 14th.
The leader of the sprint cup in the men’s competition for 155 points is Felix Loch from Germany, but among Latvians, Aparjods is in the 14th place with 36 points.
In the women’s competition, the first place with 200 points is taken by German Taubica, but Tīruma is fourth with 110 points.
In the two-man competition with 185 points, the Austrians are in the first place. Thomas Stoy / Lawrence Koller, but the Shitz brothers follow with 131 points.
Start at the Eggs track in Innsbruck during the World Cup 50 men, 48 women and 29 crews from 24 countries have applied
The World Cup season is only in Europe
At the end of the month, sleigh riders in Königssee will compete for World Championship medals, but the season The finals are scheduled for early February in St. Moritz, where the World Cup has not taken place since January 2012.
