Skeleton brothers take gold and bronze medals

Take note – story published 9 years ago

Martins Dukurs overwhelmingly stayed ahead of the pack on his final run to win his third world champion title, while his brother Tomass boosted Latvia’s skeleton team triumph with a third-place finish behind silver medalist Aleksander Tretyakov from Russia Friday at Winterberg, Germany.

Martins’ run was 0.69 seconds faster than his Russian rival’s, while Tomass’ time came in 1.52 seconds longer than his brother, handily beating the next closest pretenders to the podium.

Martins last won the world championships in 2011 and 2012, taking the silver in 2013. On his part Tomass made his first showing as a medalist in the world championship, having reached only fifth place in 2012.

The champion told the organizers he had had a perfect season topped by a successful championship. He thanked his fans for their support and congratulated his brother for his first medal.

Their father and coach Dainis Dukurs told LTV by phone that Martins had suffered from a developing earache that might land him in hospital as a precaution now that the races are over.

“Thanks to everyone… and Tomass has really earned it this time… Latvia is the best!” the Dukurs’ brothers’ dad cried.

Martins managed to hold on to his lead despite a wobbly start to his second run by convincingly setting a record time on his third run and cementing his first-place standing.

 

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