European Champion Tretiakov takes silver in Altenberg, bronze for Alexander Gassner
Altenberg (RWH) Skeleton athlete Christopher Grotheer (GER) defended his title from last year at the 2021 BMW IBSF World Championships. In Altenberg (GER) Grotheer had started into the final day on intermediate rank three after two race runs. In the third run he drove run-best time, sat at the top of the field and defended the gold position also in the fourth and final World Championship race run.
With two golds, Christopher Grotheer now has more World Championships titles than World Cup victories: out of 47 races in the BMW IBSF World Cup, he has won one so far - in Altenberg, in January 2017.
By the way, only two athletes before Christopher Grotheer managed to defend a Skeleton World Championships title: Ryan Davenport (CAN, 1996 and 1997) and Martins Dukurs (LAT), who won the World Championships in 2011 and 2012 and even at four consecutive World Championships in 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2019.
Silver at the BMW IBSF World Championships in Altenberg went to the European Champion: Alexander Tretiakov (BFR, Bobsleigh Federation of Russia) took his sixth World Championship medal, 0.28 seconds behind.
Overall World Cup runner-up Alexander Gassner (GER, 1.20 seconds back), still outside the medal ranks until the last run, still finished third with the third-best run time in the final and won World Cup bronze like last year.
Felix Keisinger (GER), the 2020 Junior World Champion, finished fourth in Altenberg ahead of reigning Junior World Champion Evgeniy Rukosuev (BFR) in fifth.
Overall World Cup winner Martins-Dukurs (LAT), record World Champion with six titles between 2011 and 2019, caught a pitch-black World Championships. After rank 14 at the halfway point in Altenberg, he ultimately ended the competition in 16th place. One place behind him still: Olympic Champion Sungbin Yun (KOR).
For more detailed information including athlete profiles and results please visit ibsf.org. Photos for editorial use can be found at Flickr. ©RWH2021
Photos: IBSF / Viesturs Lacis
