Defending champion Martins Dukurs with silver in Winterberg, bronze for Alexander Gassner
Winterberg (RWH) Alexander Tretiakov (RUS) is the 2021 European Champion in men's skeleton. In Winterberg (GER) the fifth race of the BMW IBSF World Cup 2020/2021 for the athletes from Europe was at the same time considered as European Championship.
With his second victory of the season Alexander Tretiakov also took the European Championship. For the Olympic Champion of 2014 it is the second continental title after 2007. In the 14 years between Tretiakov won two silver and four bronze medals at European Championships.
Martins Dukurs (LAT), who had previously won all European Championship titles since 2010, finished second in the World Cup in Winterberg and took European Championship silver. The six-time World Champion was 0.17 seconds short of his twelfth title in a row.
His first European Championship medal was celebrated in Winterberg by Mixed Team World Champion Alexander Gassner (GER, 0.21 seconds back), who finished third and won bronze.
Craig Thompson from Great Britain celebrated his best World Cup and European Championships result in fifth place.
The skeleton athletes from the USA and Canada joined the BMW IBSF World Cup 2020/2021 for the first hime this season in Winterberg. Best of the US team was Austin Florian on rank 15, Kevin Boyer from Canada was 16th.
Making a successful European Championships debut was Rasmus Johansen of Denmark, ninth at the Lausanne 2020 Winter Youth Olympic Games a year ago. The 18-year-old, youngest athlete in the field, finished 17th in the European Championship standings of the Winterberg race.
In the overall ranking for the BMW IBSF World Cup 2020/2021 Martins Dukurs (LAT, 1110 points) continues to lead ahead of Alexander Gassner (GER, 946) and Felix Keisinger (GER, 906). The Junior World Champion finished fourth in Winterberg.
For more detailed information including athlete profiles and World Cup results please visit ibsf.org. Photos for editorial use can be found at Flickr. ©RWH2020
Photos: IBSF / Viesturs Lacis
