Defending champion Dukurs second in Innsbruck ahead of World Champion Grotheer
Innsbruck (RWH) The first World Cup victory in the Olympic winter goes to Alexander Tretiakov from Russia. At the first BMW IBSF World Cup 2021/2022, the 2014 Skeleton Olympic Champion celebrated his 21st World Cup victory in total in Innsbruck (AUT).
Tretiakov, who had also won the last race of the last season in Innsbruck, was still in third place after the first race run of the World Cup season, but then went on to lead the field with the best time in the second run. Tretiakov's lead over defending World Cup champion Martins Dukurs from Latvia was 0.07 seconds. The six-time World Champion had been in the lead at half-time in Innsbruck.
World Champion Christopher Grotheer (GER, 0.16 seconds back) came in third at the World Cup opener in the Olympic Icetrack in Innsbruck.
Three Skeleton athletes from the team of China, host of the Olympic Winter Games Beijing 2022, competed in Innsbruck two and a half months before the start of the Games. Wenqiang Geng, who finished third in La Plagne (FRA) in 2020, the first World Cup podium for China, was twelfth, Wengang Yan, the sixth-placed athlete at the 2020 World Championships, was 17th and Wenhao Chen, the overall runner-up in the 2020 IBSF Intercontinental Cup, was 19th. For the athletes from China, the BMW IBSF World Cup in Innsbruck was the first international competition since March 2020 - the team did not travel to IBSF races last winter due to the pandemic.
In the BMW IBSF World Cup 2021-2022, Alexander Tretiakov (RUS, 225 points) is leading after the first of eight stops, ahead of ten-time overall winner Martins Dukurs (LAT, 210) and 2020 and 2021 World Champion Christopher Grotheer (GER, 200).
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
Photo: IBSF / Viesturs Lacis
