INNSBRUCK, Austria, Jan. 18 (Xinhua) -- The six-time World Champion Martins Dukurs from Latvia claimed his tenth Innsbruck title in a row in the men's skeleton at the 2019-2020 IBSF World Cup here on Friday.
The win also marked the first victory of the season for Dukurs, who extended his lead over Russia's Alexander Tretiakov, the defending World Cup champion, to 29 points after Innsbruck in the overall standings of the season.
Dukurs finished first in both runs for a combined time of one minute and 44.50 seconds, beating Olympic champion Yun Sungbin of South Korea and Tretiakov by 0.42 and 0.44 seconds respectively.
Chinese athlete Geng Wenqiang finished in joint seventh place, along with Felix Keisinger from Germany. Both athletes completed the Austrian track 0.99 seconds behind the Latvian.
Starting to compete since 1998, Dukurs has won the overall World Cup standings nine times and World Champions for six times in total. The former volleyball player was just shy of snatching an Olympic gold with two silvers from Whistler 2010 and Sochi 2014 respectively.
