Two silvers and a bronze for Latvia at IBSF World Cup stage

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Latvian bobsledders and a skeleton athlete managed to win two silver medals and a bronze at the La Plagne, France stage of the BMW International Bobsleigh and Skeleton Federation (IBSF) World Cup, with skeleton athlete Martins Dukurs also securing first place in the overall ranking, according to organizers on January 10-12.

Skeleton

M. Dukurs finished second place at the World Cup stage, which was enough to put him in first place overall, while his brother Tomass Dukurs finished 10th. Alexander Tretiakov from Russia finished with a combined time of 1:58.90 minutes, while M. Dukurs was 0.37 seconds behind him and Sungbin Yun from South Korea finished third.

The Latvian athlete had the fastest start for both runs, but it wasn't enough to put him in first place at La Plagne. T. Dukurs had slower starts and momentary lost speed on his second run when his sled momentarily skidded to the side. M. Dukurs bested his own 2015 track record in his first run with a time of 59.60 seconds, which was shortly beat by Tretiakov with a time of 59.28 seconds.

2-man bobsleigh

The 2-man bobsleigh team piloted by Oskars Ķibermanis won second place for the first time this season at the World Cup stage in La Plagne, which also placed him in second in the overall rankings. The second Latvian team piloted by Ralfs Bērziņš tied for 10th.

The German duo piloted by World Champion Francesco Friedrich placed first with a total time of 1:58.52 minutes, which was 0.26 seconds ahead of Ķibermanis' team. The Swiss team piloted by Michael Vogt placed third.

Ķibermanis had the best start in his first run, but lost speed as the result of a mistake in the first part of the run. The second run was a lot smoother and resulted in the fastest time. Bērziņš' team made no mistakes and had a good start, but the sled simply wasn't fast enough.

4-man bobsleigh

The 4-man team piloted by Ķibermanis placed third at 0.33 seconds behind the winner, despite the pilot pulling a leg muscle during the first run. The second Latvian team piloted by Bērziņš placed 13th. Friedrich's team once again placed first with a total time of 1:55.85 minutes. Another German team piloted by Johannes Lochner placed 2nd.

In the first run Ķibermanis' team had the second fastest start, but had some small mistakes in the first half of the run. The second run had a slightly slower start, but he didn't make any mistakes. It's still not known how bad the pilot's muscle injury is or how it will impact the rest of the season.

Bērziņš' team made several small mistakes in during the first half of the first run, but had a stable second run. Ķibermanis has had the most success with his 4-man team this season, climbing onto the podium at three out of five competitions.

The next stage of the skeleton and bobsleigh Europe Cup will be held in the Latvian town of Sigulda from January 18-19.

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