Ukrainian luger Andriy Mandziy won the Nations Cup competition in Winterberg, Germany, ahead of the fifth stage of the World Cup. The athlete won a gold medal in the men's singles luge event. This was reported by the National Olympic Committee of Ukraine and the national Olympic team of Ukraine, according to UNN.
Details
The Nations Cup competition took place in Winterberg before the start of the V stage of the Luge World Cup. Ukrainian Andriy Mandziy showed the best result in men's singles luge, covering the distance in 53.289 seconds.
Our luger beat Slovak Jozef Ninis, who won a silver medal, by 0.140 seconds. American Matthew Greiner won the bronze medal.
After the victory, Andriy Mandziy commented on his performance:
"It was a confident run, although the time was a second worse than in yesterday's training. Due to heavy snowfall, the track feels completely different, and it's not easy to adapt to such changes in conditions. However, I managed to do it today. I truly enjoy competing in the Nations Cup — every start is extremely important for us, so this victory means a lot to me," the athlete noted.
This gold medal was Mandziy's second Nations Cup award in the current competitive season, as he had already won bronze in December.
"Ahead, the lugers face a decisive test — the fifth stage of the World Cup, which will take place on January 10-11 in Winterberg. These competitions will be the final stage of Olympic qualification, based on the results of which the number of tickets for the Ukrainian national team to the Games in Milan-Cortina-2026 will be finally determined. We congratulate Andriy and everyone involved in the success! We wish all our athletes fast ice and winning seconds at the finish line!" the post says.
Recall
The International Bobsleigh and Skeleton Federation canceled the World Cup skeleton competition in Winterberg, Germany, due to unfavorable weather conditions. The competition was postponed to another time.