Skeleton | Innsbruck: Grotheer on the podium at the start of the season – women disappoint
Status: 11/19/2021 12:30 p.m.
Skeleton world champion Christopher Grotheer finished third on the track in Innsbruck / Igls. Things didn’t go that well for Tina Hermann, Jacqueline Lölling and Hannah Neise.
The skeletons started the Olympic winter. In the men’s category, the German athletes led by world champion Christopher Grotheer showed that they could compete for the top places.
On the track in Innsbruck / Igls – the top speed is over 120 km / h – top riders were dying close together after the first run. Innsbruck’s long-running Martins Dukurs from Latvia was ahead of world champion Christopher Grotheer with 0.09 seconds. Everything pointed to a duel between the two in the second run.
“The Russian Rocket” catching up
But the victory went to Alexander Tretiakov – “the Russian missile”. The Russian, in fourth place 0.10 seconds behind Dukurs in the first run, got off to a very good start in the second run – and could have all the other drivers behind him. His lead over Dukurs at the finish was 0.07 seconds.
Grotheer, who also achieved third place in Innsbruck last year, showed a few small wobbles in the second run and lost time on Tretiakov – in the end he was 0.16 seconds behind in third. “I am super satisfied with the podium. I was a little sick during the week and don’t feel too lively, but the start times were quite good,” said the man from Oberhof.
Vice world champion Axel Jungk landed on the thankless fourth place. The man from Dresden touched the gang and lost time (+0.34 seconds). Alexander Gassner, who won the pre-Olympic race in Beijing, finished eighth (+0.57 seconds).
German skeleton women disappoint
At the pre-Olympic races in Beijing, the German trio was still convincing: Tina Hermann won ahead of Hannah Neise, Jacqueline Lölling was fourth. But in Innsbruck they clearly missed the podium. Best German World Champion Hermann in eighth place (+0.79 seconds). Lölling was eleventh (+1.18 seconds), Neise finished the competition in 18th (+1.62 seconds).
Nikitina repeats her triumph from the previous season in Innsbruck
As with the men, the victory went to Russia: Elena Nikitina, still in third place in the first run, played out all her routine and relegated Kimberley Bos (NED) to second place (+0.10 seconds). The leader after the first run, Kim Meylemans from Belgium, is back in third place (+0.13 seconds). Nikitina won the previous season in Innsbruck.
Olympic qualification in view
The German skeletons want to qualify for the Olympic Winter Games in Beijing as soon as possible. The Olympic criteria look like this: two places one to three or three times places one to eight. There is also a quota position: the best two nations according to the points list are allowed to drive to the games with three athletes.
Source: sportschau.de