Third place in Innsbruck for Olympic silver medallist Nikita Tregubov
Innsbruck (RWH) Two of the longest-serving skeleton athletes have won the third BMW IBSF World Cup race of the season in Innsbruck (AUT). Martins Dukurs from Latvia and Alexander Tretiakov from Russia had exactly the same overall time after two runs. In November 2004 Dukurs and Tretiakov made their World Cup debut - between this race and their joint victory in Innsbruck there are six World Cup titles and nine overall World Cup victories for Dukurs as well as one Olympic gold medal, one World Championships title and two overall victories for Tretiakov.
Nikita Tregubov (RUS), the Olympic silver medallist of PyeongChang 2018, finished thirdin Innsbruck and thus stood on the podium for the first time since January 2019. Two hundredths of a second separated the 2019 World Championships runner-up from the winning duo.
The Briton Matt Weston caused a surprise at the BMW IBSF World Cup in Innsbruck. After the first race, he tied fort he lead with record World Cup winner Martins Dukurs. For the first victory of a British skeleton athlete since January 2008 by Kristan Bromley, the 23-year-old ultimately lacked the experience and 0.15 seconds. Matt Weston finished fourth, just like at the World Championships in Altenberg 2020.
Another World Cup newcomer also managed to surprise: Daniil Romanov from Russia, who has only been in the BMW IBSF World Cup since the beginning of the season, finished fourth after the first run at the same time as his team-mate, Olympic and World Champion Alexander Tretiakov. In the end, the Russian finished eighth.
The local heroes Samuel Maier and Florian Auer (AUT) celebrated their best World Cup results so far with seventh and ninth place.
For more detailed information including athlete profiles and World Cup results please visit ibsf.org. ©RWH2020
Photos: IBSF / Viesturs Lacis
