Olympic Champion Sungbin Yun in second, Nikita Tregubov finishes third
Altenberg (RWH): Alexander Tretiakov of Russia has won the men’s skeleton race at the BMW IBSF World Cup in Altenberg. At the third stop in the 2018/2019 winter season, the 2014 Olympic Champion secured his second victory in succession, pushing the 2018 Olympic Champion Sungbin Yun of Korea (0.57 seconds back) into second place.
There was a three-way battle for the bronze medal after the first heat, with just five hundredths of a second separating the Olympic silver medallist Nikita Tregubov of Russia, World Champion Martins Dukurs of Latvia and Christopher Grotheer (GER) on his return to the World Cup circuit. By the end of the second heat in Altenberg, Nikita Tregubov (0.84 seconds back) managed to record the best time of the three, securing him the bronze medal.
Christopher Grotheer – who finished eighth at the Olympics in PyeongChang – missed the beginning of the season due to injury and has not competed in the World Cup for almost a year. Grotheer celebrated a fourth-place finish on his season début, marking the best performance by a German athlete in Altenberg.
Austin Florian of the USA – overall winner of the 2018 IBSF North America Cup – also made his first appearance of the current BMW IBSF World Cup season, celebrating his best ever World Cup result in ninth place.
Alexander Tretiakov (RUS, 642 points) has now further extended his lead in the overall standings for the 2018/2019 BMW IBSF World Cup. His team mate Nikita Tregubov (RUS, 617) is second overall, followed by Sungbin Yun (KOR, 610).
Further information, the World Cup results and the latest overall standings are available at ibsf.org. ©RWH2018
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