Geng ties with Olympic champion Yun to help China to the podium for the first time
La Plagne (RWH) Victory for the defending skeleton champion, World Champion takes the World Cup lead and the first podium position for upcoming Olympic host China: At the BMW IBSF World Cup in La Plagne (FRA), World Cup defending champion Alexander Tretiakov from Russia celebrated his second win of the season. Finishing his first run in 59.28 seconds, the 2013 World Champion was half a second faster than the previous track record in La Plagne, set by Martins Dukurs (LAT) in January 2015.
Dukurs, an nine-time World Cup overall winner, came in second in La Plagne (0.37 seconds behind), helping him secure the lead in the overall rankings.
A surprise result came in the form of China's Wenqiang Geng. The skeleton athlete from the 2022 Olympic host country finished in joint third place in La Plagne, alongside the 2018 Olympic Champion, Sungbin Yun of Korea. Both athletes completed the race 1.39 seconds behind the winner, Tretiakov.
Jisoo Kim (KOR) in sixth place and Vladyslav Heraskevysch from Ukraine in eighth both celebrated their best results to date at the BMW IBSF World Cup.
Looking at the overall rankings in the BMW IBSF World Cup 2019/2020, Martins Dukurs (LAT, 822 points) currently has a slight lead at the halfway point. Following his win in La Plagne and in second place overall, Alexander Tretiakov (RUS, 818) is just four points behind. Having previously reached the top of the table, Germany's Axel Jungk (801) has slipped to third place in the overall rankings after coming fifth in La Plagne.
Further information, the World Cup results and the latest overall standings are available at ibsf.org. ©RWH2020
10 January 2020
