UMHAUSEN. On Saturday, February 17th 2018, the final runs of the sixth GRM Group Luge World Cup were held at the Grantau track in Umhausen (AUT). Afterwards, the overall champions of the season 2017/2018 were awarded the World Cup trophies.

Thomas Kammerlander
(© Chris Walch)

The men’s competition was a close race until the very end, since three athletes – Thomas Kammerlander (AUT), Alex Gruber (ITA) and Patrick Pigneter (ITA) – were within reach of the overall World Cup victory. In the end, local hero Kammerlander was able to defend the title with a win at his home track. “Each one of us would have deserved the title. But today luck was on my side,” Kammerlander explained after the race, which had taken place under difficult weather conditions – rain and warm temperatures caused the athletes a lot of trouble. “Under such circumstances, anything is possible. We were all quite nervous before the start. But I am happy now with my victory, especially because so many spectators attended the finals,” said the title defender, who had also won a gold medal at the recently held European Championships. “It has been a great season for me. The only bad thing is that from now on, it can only get worse,” laughed the Austrian. Runner-up in the overall standings was Gruber, who had ranked third in Umhausen behind Kammerlander and Pigneter. “The other two just were better today, and Kammerlander is always hard to beat here. So I’m content with the third rank,” said Gruber, who was also happy with the outcome of the season. “I constantly delivered good runs during the season, and I was able to take part in the fight for victory in every race. So I’m very happy with the second rank in the overall standings.” Gruber’s teammate Pigneter hat to be content with the third rank in the overall World Cup, despite a good performance in Umhausen. “During the whole season, I lacked the calmness I once had. But I hope it will come back no later than next year”, said the Italian.

Evelin Lanthaler
(© Chris Walch)

At the women’s competition, the new overall winner Evelin Lanthaler (ITA) – who won her second title of the season only a few days after she had claimed the gold medal at the European Championships – had already been determined on the day before: The Italian benefited from the failure of her teammate Greta Pinggera, who had crashed in her first competition run in Umhausen and therefore dropped out of the race. Pinggera was the only athlete who would have been able to catch up to Lanthaler, but due to her disqualification the latter could tackle the final run with no pressure whatsoever. “I wanted to show a good performance today. The second run was extremely difficult, because the track was quite soft. But I made the best out of the situation and was able to maintain the lead,” said Lanthaler, who not only celebrated her triumph in the overall World Cup but also her very first victory at the Grantau track. “I really wanted to win the title, and I’m very happy it worked out for me.” Lanthaler’s teammate Pinggera, in turn, was the runner-up in the overall standings despite her failure in Umhausen, while Tina Unterberger (AUT) – who came in third at the Grantau track behind the German Sara Bachmann – ranked third. “Today’s run was bad for me, I just can’t stand all the slush,” the Austrian explained after the race. “But I had a great season, I couldn’t have hoped for more.”

Patrick Pigneter/Florian Clara
(© Chris Walch)

At the doubles, Patrick Pigneter/Florian Clara (ITA) were able to reclaim the overall World Cup title: The Italians, who had been runner-ups after the first run in Umhausen, eventually managed to reach the top in the second leg and therefore won their fifth race of the season. “The track conditions were quite different than they’ve been the day before, but we adapted to it really well,” explained Pigneter, who was glad about the title win. “We are very happy now with our victory in the overall World Cup – this has been our main goal this season, and we succeeded.” His partner Clara added: “It’s a great feeling to stand on top again. We’ve worked hard in summer, and from the beginning of the season everything went well for us, everything worked out. Now we are totally satisfied, of course.” Runner-up in the overall standings were the Russians Pavel Porshnev/Ivan Lazarev, who also ranked second in Umhausen with a gap of 16 hundredths to the Italians. “We wanted to win here, but it wasn’t easy today. Altogether, we are satisfied, especially because of the second rank in the overall World Cup,” said Lazarev. Another Russian pairing ranked third: Aleksandr Egorov/Petr Popov came in third in Umhausen and therefore were able to keep the Austrians Rupert Brüggler/Tobias Angerer at bay in the overall standings.

Podium Doppelsitzer
Podium doubles
(© Chris Walch)

At the team competition, the Italian squad was victorious: Florian Breitenberger, Evelin Lanthaler and Patrick Pigneter/Florian Clara ranked first, followed by Austria with Thomas Kammerlander, Tina Unterberger and Rupert Brüggler/Tobias Angerer. The Russian team with Gregori Bukin, Daria Maleeva and Pavel Porshnev/Ivan Lazarev came in third.

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