UMHAUSEN. From February 15th–17th 2018, the sixth, and last, GRM Group Luge World Cup of the season 2017/2018 takes place at the Grantau track in Umhausen (AUT). Altogether, 47 men, 28 women, and 15 doubles have registered for the races, 20 nations are represented.
On Friday, February 16th 2018, the event started with the first competition runs of all categories.

At the women’s event, the winner of the overall World Cup has already been determined because Greta Pinggera (ITA) – the only athlete who would have been able to outpace her teammate Evelin Lanthaler – crashed in the first leg in Umhausen and could not finish her run. Due to Pinggera’s disqualification, Lanthaler is now out of reach and therefore the new overall World Cup champion. This is particularly bitter for Pinggera as she had delivered the best runtimes in training and had ranked first ahead of Lanthaler. The latter, in turn, was the fastest athlete in the first competition run, she ranked first with a time of 1:15.96 minutes. The Austrians Tina Unterberger and Michelle Diepold came in second and third, respectively – both still battle each other for the third rank in the overall standings.

At the men’s event, local hero Thomas Kammerlander (AUT) came in first and now has the best starting position for the final run: The Austrian, who is in the lead of the overall standings with a margin of 15 points, finished with a time of 1:13.34 minutes and therefore kept his toughest rivals Patrick Pigneter and Alex Gruber – who both still have the chance to win the title as well – at bay. But it was a close race, only 21 hundredths separate Kammerlander and runner-up Pigneter, while Gruber, who came in third, was only 44 hundredths slower than the Austrian. So, at the men’s event everything is still open before the decisive run, there are still three athletes who are within reach of the title.

Although everything is still open at the doubles’ event too, the race for the overall World Cup victory is as good as over: Patrick Pigneter/Florian Clara (ITA) ranked second in the first competition run in Umhausen and only have to finish in the points in the final run to secure the title. The battle for the World Cup trophies, however, is far from over as four pairings still have the chance to become runner-up in the overall standings. Among them are the Russians Pavel Porshnev/Ivan Lazarev – who were the best double in the first competition run in Umhausen and finished with a time of 1:17.88 minutes – and their teammates Aleksandr Egorov/Petr Popov, who came in third with a gap of 31 hundredths. The Austrians Rupert Brüggler/Tobias Angerer, who will have to improve themselves in the last run if they want to win one of the World Cup trophies, ranked fourth. 

At the women’s Nations’ Cup, Nadine Staffler (ITA) came in first, followed by Natascha Amacher (SUI) and Victoria Kozhakina (KAZ). At the men’s Nations’ Cup, the Italian Florian Breitenberger (ITA) won the race ahead of his teammates Florian Haselrieder and Laurin Jakob Kompatscher.

The final runs of all competitions will be held on Saturday, February 17th 2018. The races are scheduled to start at 3 pm.

Results:
http://www.fil-luge.org/en/multimedia/grm-group-luge-world-cup-on-natural-track-8

Live-stream:
http://www.fil-luge.org/de/live-streaming-naturbahn