Latvian brothers win medals in Switzeland

  • 2014-01-10
  • From wire reports, RIGA

For the second week in a row, Latvia's Martins and Tomass Dukurs placed first and second in a Skeleton World Cup stage, this time at the St Moritz Track in Switzerland.

Martins finished in overall first place, 0.26 seconds ahead of his brother Tomass, who finished in second.

American Matthew Antoine came in 69 seconds ahead of Martins whilst Russia's Alexander Tretyakov finished in fourth place, 0.80 seconds behind the winner.

This is the tenth time that the Dukurs brothers have stood on the podium together in a Skeleton World Cup stage.

In the Skeleton World Cup standings at the moment, M.Dukurs is in first place with 1,045 points, followed by Tretyakov with 1,037 points, with Tomass in third place with 988 points.

Martins has been the world's top skeleton athlete the past several years, winning four straight Skeleton World Cup titles, two World and four European Championship titles, and is also an Olympic silver medalist at the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver.

Martins remains one of the favorites to win the gold at the upcoming Winter Olympics in Sochi, with his brother Tomass also now a legitimate medal contender.