Skeleton Vice World Champion Axel Jungk (Oberbärenburg) has just missed a podium finish to start the Olympic season. At the World Cup season opener in Lake Placid/USA, the 26-year-old finished fourth as the best German starter. Christopher Grotheer (Oberhof) finished tenth, Winterberg’s Alexander Gassner did not exceed 18th place after a serious driving mistake on the demanding 1980 Olympic track.
The victory went to Martin’s Dukurs, the five-time world champion and eight-time overall World Cup winner from Latvia, thus underscored around three months before the winter games in Pyeongchang (9th place). till 25. February 2018) his exceptional position.
Dukurs, who is missing the Olympic victory in his lavish collection of titles alone, relegated the South Korean Yun Sung-bin and Sochi gold medallist Alexander Tretyakov (Russia) to the places.
Jungk was a slow Dukurs in spite of two solid runs under the line 0.58 seconds, also on Tretjakow he was missing 0.41 seconds. However, the Russian is threatened with a lifelong Olympic blockade – and the loss of the gold medal of Sochi – due to possible involvement in the Russian state doping scandal.