MOSCOW. On Sunday, January 15th, the GRM Group Luge World Cup on Natural Track in Moscow (RUS) came to an end. It was a successful event: the widespread media coverage as well as the fact, that the Russian Minister of Sport, Pavel Kolobkov, did not want to miss the races and visited the athletes at the track in Vorobyovy Gory, may serve as proof.

The last competitions of the GRM Group World Cup in the Russian capital were the Pursuit Races of the women and the men. The Pursuit Race is a special mode, where you have to beat your respective opponents in duels to reach the next round, until there are only six athletes left. They, in turn, will be classified in the conventional way. In Moscow, the Pursuit Races were held for the first time this season, and the winners were the same as in the world cup races from the day before: Thomas Kammerlander (AUT) triumphed at the men’s event, Evelin Lanthaler (ITA) won at the women’s event.

“For me, the trip to Moscow was definitely worth it,” said Kammerlander, who was happy about a perfect race weekend: “200 Points and new leader of the World Cup, the current situation couldn’t be better.” It’s the first time the Austrian could put on the World Cup Leader-shirt, and to him, it was an honor. But the way to the top wasn’t easy, Kammerlander’s rivals gave him a hard time in Moscow: “From run to run I had to get better and improve my performance, otherwise it wouldn’t have been enough.” Aleksandr Egorov (RUS), who ranked third, also pointed out the strong competition in the Russian capital: “It was a tough race, the athletes are very close together.” Indeed: In the final run, for instance, Egorov was only two hundredths slower than Alex Gruber (ITA), who ranked second and was happy with his performance: “One can only speculate, where the hundredths came from, but the fact remains that I did my best today. The race was exhausting, in every run I had to go to the limit. But luckily, the last run went well.”

In the overall standings of the women, Evelin Lanthaler took the lead after the races in Moscow. The Italian showed once more that she is in good shape at the moment, and for her, it also was a perfect weekend in Russia. In the last run, she had a time of 0:38.39 minutes and was 42 hundredths faster than her compatriot Greta Pinggera, who ranked second. Tina Unterberger from Austria came in third. “All in all, everything went well today. I had a great second run with a good time, and now I’m really happy about my victory,” Lanthaler said after the race. Pinggera was also satisfied with her performance: “Today, the track maybe was even a little bit more difficult than yesterday, you really can’t afford to make any mistake here. This in mind, I’m glad I had a good final run.” Unterberger, who had to hand over the World Cup Leader-shirt to Lanthaler after the race, stated that she had done the best she could: “It’s the best possible result for me, I couldn’t have done better today.”

The next competition of the GRM Group Luge World Cup on Natural Track will be held from January 20th to 22nd in Železniki, Slovenia.

Results:
http://www.fil-luge.org/en/multimedia/grm-group-luge-world-cup-on-natural-track-1