Susanne Kreher and Axel Jungk wrote skeleton history in St. Moritz, Switzerland.
At the European Mixed Team Championship, which was held for the first time, the Saxony natives secured the European Championship title as the best European duo.
In the World Cup they took second place, nine hundredths of a second behind the Chinese Zhao Dan and Yin Zheng. Since the competition was also considered a European Championship, the second best overall time of 2:26.25 minutes was enough for the gold medal.
“The fact that we can share this as a Saxony team is a great end to the day,” said Kreher in an interview with ARD.
The 27-year-old from Annaberg-Buchholz completed the natural ice rink in snowfall in 1:14.13 minutes and was only eight hundredths of a second behind her Chinese competitor. Axel Jungk made it even closer: The 34-year-old from Zschopau was only a hundredth of a second slower than Yin Zheng in the men’s race.
Jungk replaces Grotheer
Jungk crowned a successful day with the mixed success. In the men’s singles, the third place in the 2024 World Cup took second place, only five hundredths behind. At short notice, Jungk was moved into the mixed team for the originally planned Christopher Grotheer. Kreher, on the other hand, reached sixth place in the women’s singles on Friday.
The Italians Alessandra Fumagalli and Amedeo Bagnis came third in the mixed competition, 29 hundredths behind, which also meant silver at the European Championships. Freya Tarbit and Jacob Salisbury (Great Britain) secured bronze. The second German mixed team with Jacqueline Pfeifer and Felix Keisinger came in eighth place, 1.07 seconds behind.
In the overall mixed ranking of the IBSF World Cup, Great Britain continues to lead with 634 points ahead of the USA (578) and Germany 1 (578) before the season finale in Altenberg. After the first European Championship for Skeleton Mixed Teams in St. Moritz, the Olympic premiere will follow in February in Milan/Cortina d’Ampezzo.