Max Langenhan defends World Cup victory in Altenberg

Altenberg (FIL/05.02.2023) Sunshine and minus five degrees - the SachsenEnergie Eiskanal in Altenberg presented itself with the very best ice conditions for the men's singles of the FIL EBERSPÄCHER Luge World Cup. Vice World Champion Max Langenhan coped best with the changed conditions and defended his World Cup victory from last year. He won the World Championship dress rehearsal ahead of Dominik Fischnaller (ITA) and teammate Felix Loch. 

It was not an easy week for the men in Altenberg with changing weather conditions. Their final training had to be cancelled due to continuous rain and moved to Saturday afternoon, which was a disruption for all athletes in their otherwise well-rehearsed rhythm on the World Cup weekend.

Last year, Max Langenhan shared his first World Cup victory in the single with Austria's Wolfgang Kindl. This year, he was determined to stand alone on the top of the podium and already put a 0.213-second lead between himself and the competition in the first run. It was a close race behind him: there were only 36 thousandths between teammate Felix Loch in second place and Italian Dominik Fischnaller in fourth. 

The 23-year-old sports soldier from Friedrichroda safely took home the victory and was happy about the fourth World Cup win of his career. Olympic bronze medallist Dominik Fischnaller (ITA, +0.238 sec.) still moved up to second place and pushed Sprint World Champion Felix Loch (GER, +0.332 sec.) to third place, closely followed by Austrians Wolfgang Kindl (+0.369 sec.), David Gleirscher (AUT, +0.390) and Nico Gleirscher (+0.682 sec.).

After crashing at the World Championships, South Tyrolean Dominik Fischnaller showed that he is rightly leading the overall World Cup. The 29-year-old has already been on the podium six times this season in sprint and individual events, twice at the top, and finished in the top five on each occasion. He still leads with 605 points ahead of Felix Loch (496) and Wolfgang Kindl (453).

Quotes:

Max Langenhan (GER): “I am so happy that it worked out here of all places, where I had injured my hand during the preparation in autumn. Of course, that was somehow in the back of my mind. The fact that it went so well today is really special for me. In Winterberg I haven't raced that much yet this season, but we have a good flow and we'll take that with us to Winterberg.”

Dominik Fischnaller (ITA): “I'm really happy that I was able to fight my way up to second place in the second run and thus extend my World Cup lead. It is my best season so far, which makes me really proud. Now I'm on track for my tenth World Cup victory. I'll get that one this winter!”

Felix Loch (GER): “It didn't work out that well twice today in the Omega, I lost some time there. However, we can be happy with the start, it went really well. To be on the podium with one and three is really awesome after the week with miserable conditions.”

The results of the 6th EBERSPÄCHER World Cup of the season 2022/23 are available under the following link: https://www.fil-luge.org/de/ergebnisse/eberspaecher-weltcup-24