Winterberg (Germany) (AFP) – Latvia’s Martins Ducours claimed his 60th World Skeleton Championship win in his career, capping his 11th title last season.
The Dukurs outperformed Germany’s Axel Jungk by the fewest margins – hundredths of a second. Dokur won the heat single in 56.36 seconds, Youngk crossed the line in 56.37 and Russian Alexander Tretyakov was third with a time of 56.41 seconds.
Germany’s Christopher Grother, who started the day at the top of the World Cup standings, finished only ninth and slipped to third in the season’s list. Dukurs leads with 1,398 points, Jungk is second with 1,359 and Grotheer with 1,347.
The Dukurs only need a fourth place finish to win the overall World Cup title next weekend in St Moritz, Switzerland.
Andrew Placer was 22nd for the men, while Austin Florian was 24th. The men’s race was shortened to one lap instead of the usual two after race officials decided not to follow the correct procedures to sweep the track in what should have been the first race.
In the women’s race, Kimberly Boss took her second win of the season and came close to becoming the first slider from the Netherlands – both men’s and women’s – to become the all-time world champion. Boss finished the race with a time of 1: 56.04, a quarter of a second ahead of German Jacqueline Lolling, and about half a second ahead of Russian Elena Nikitina, who finished third.
Boss extended her lead over Nikitina to 68 points with one race remaining. Boss won the title in eighth place in St. Moritz. She was in the top six in six of the first seven races of the season.
Megan Henry ranked 10th for the United States, while Kelly Curtis ranked 13th. Katie Olander did not race on Friday, although she is expected to return for the final in St Moritz – a race that could decide which Americans will make up the Olympic team.
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