Martins Dukurs defends World Cup lead in second place, Olympic champion Yun third
St. Moritz (RWH) Mixed Team World Champion Alexander Gassner from Germany celebrated his first ever victory in the BMW IBSF World Cup in St. Moritz (SUI). On the Olympia Bobrun St. Moritz-Celerina, Gassner, second after the first run, pulled out a hundredth of a second advantage in the second run - the smallest measurable gap in skeleton racing. Gassner thus stood at the top of the podium for the first time almost ten years after his first World Cup and in his 44th race.
Second place in St. Moritz went to defending champion Martins Dukurs of Latvia. The nine-time overall World Cup winner has thus been on the podium in all six World Cup races in the pre-Olympic winter.
Olympic Champion Sungbin Yun (KOR) started into the 2020/2021 BMW IBSF World Cup in third place. The Korean, with 4.74 seconds the best starter in St. Moritz, was 0.47 seconds behind winner Alexander Gassner at the end.
Evgenij Rukosuev from Russia, the Youth Olympic Champion of 2016, finished fourth in St. Moritz and celebrated his best result in the BMW IBSF World Cup. The 21-year-old was two tenth of a second short of a medal.
Jean-Jacques Buff (SUI) finished his first World Cup appearance for the host team from Switzerland in 16th place.
In the overall ranking for the BMW IBSF World Cup 2020/2021 Martins Dukurs (LAT, 1320 points) continues to lead. Alexander Gassner (GER, 1171) was able to close his gap a bit and remains in second place ahead of teammate Felix Keisinger (GER, 1074) before the last two World Cup races. Junior World Champion Keisinger finished seventh in St. Moritz. .
For more detailed information including athlete profiles and World Cup results please visit ibsf.org. Photos for editorial use can be found at Flickr. ©RWH2021
Photos: IBSF / Viesturs Lacis
