“The stars were aligned for me today.”, Lund said, “When I finished and knew I had won, I wasn’t even happy, but relieved. Last year I was the Olympic medal favorite, and I felt like I was under a lot of pressure. This week, I needed to prove to myself what everyone thought I was.”

Lund immediately proved his point by crushing the track record in the first heat with a time of 57.48. Like Lund, Bernotas wanted to prove that he could perform better than his sixth place finish at the 2006 Olympics, fueling a friendly duel between the two teammates for the gold.

“The situation felt all too familiar today,” Bernotas said. “In the World Cup two years ago and at the Olympics, I wanted to make adjustments in the second run because my first run wasn’t what I had expected or needed, and I tried to make it too perfect. It didn’t work out. I was able to do it today, and I finally got that monkey off my back and had a great second run.”

Germany’s Michi Halilovic was second after a first run time of 57.62, with Bernotas almost four-tenths of a second behind in third with a 57.87. Bernotas had the fastest run of the second heat, a 57.57, edging closer to Lund with a combined time of 1:55.44.

“Eric gave me a scare,” Lund said. “He wasn’t happy with his result last year at the Olympics, so he wanted to win just as bad I did. I knew going into the race that it was going to be a fight. I was lucky enough to come out a hair on top.”

Bernotas was only seven one-hundredths of a second behind Lund, who finished with a total time of 1:55.37 for the gold.

"I’m really happy for Zach,” Bernotas said. “It was an exciting race, and as I watched the splits at the finish, I thought we were going to finish in a dead heat, as a tie. We ended up only seven one-hundredths of a second from each other, and I don’t even know what that means because it’s so small. But I couldn’t have asked for a better race.”

Caleb Smith (Lake Placid, N.Y.) finished in twenty-second place today with a first run time of 59.04, with teammate Chris Hedquist (Salt Lake City, Utah) in twenty-seventh with a 59.52. Only the top twenty finishers are given a second run.

After today’s race, Lund continues to lead in overall World Cup standings with 520 points.  Bernotas is second overall with 424 points after having won a gold, silver and bronze medal this season. In eighth is Hedquist with 244 points, and in eleventh is Smith with 196 points.