Jacob’s Kalenda Quaternary | Photo: AP Photo/Andrew Medichini
The Latvian bobsleigh crew piloted by Jēkabs Kalendas took 17th place in the first stage of the World Cup in Cortina d’Ampezzo on Sunday, while the foursome led by Renārs Grantiņš took 20th place.
The double victory was won by the Germans, with Johannes Lohner piloted by four with pushers Torsten Margis, Jern Wenzel and Georg Fleischhauer taking first place, which was the fastest in both races, finishing in one minute and 49.73 seconds. Their time of 54.75 seconds in the first run is a course record.
Pilot Francesco Friedrich‘s four-wheel drive, which broke the track start record in the second race, completing the starting meters in 4.76 seconds, took second place in both races, 0.22 seconds behind the compatriots in the sum of two races.
Third place went to the South Korean four with driver Jins Kim, who was fourth in both races, 0.61 seconds behind the winners.
Kalenda’s foursome with pushers Edgars Ungurus, Matīsa Mikni and Mairi Kļavas achieved the 17th best result in both races, being 1.62 seconds behind Lohner’s crew in the sum of two races.
The foursome of Grantinas with pushers Dāvi and Lauri Kaufmani, as well as Edgars Nemmi, who replaced the injured Arni Bebriš, after 14th place in the first race, ranked 20th in the second race, falling back to 20th place in the sum of two races and losing 1.78 seconds to the winners.
Fourth in the competition of 31 crews was the Austrian Markus Treihl’s crew (+0.62), which achieved the third best result in the second race, the fifth – the German Adam Amour’s crew (+0.65), who finished third in the first race, and the sixth – the British sportsman Brad Hall’s crew (+1.01).
On Saturday, in the doubles competition, Kalenda/Bebrišs took 13th place, while Grantiņš/Ungurs ranked 23rd. Last season, the crew piloted by Kalenda took the ninth place in the World Cup overall in the four-man competition, but in the junior competition, they finished behind the German Adam Amour. Kalenda achieved the best result in doubles in Altenberg, where she was sixth.
This was the debut for Grantin at the World Cup stages. Last season, in the European Cup competitions, Grantiņš took the second place in the overall standings behind the crew piloted by the German Maksimilians Illmanis, winning the third and two second places respectively in the three Sigulda stages, and also winning the second place in the European Junior Championship in the first of the Sigulda European Cup stages.
Starting from this season, the head coach of the Latvian bobsleigh team is Emīls Cipulis. Latvia is not represented in the women’s competition in the first stage.
This season, seven stages of the World Cup are planned for athletes fighting for tickets to the 2026 Olympic Games in Milan and Cortina d’Ampezzo. The next stage will take place in the last week of November at the Eagles track in Austria, in the middle of December skeletonists will compete in Lillehammer, the fourth stage will be hosted by Sigulda, and after the new year stages will be held in Winterberg, St. Moritz and Altenberg.
