Felix Loch has set his eyes on overall Viessmann Luge World Cup victory
Oberhof (pps) Three victories in four Viessmann Luge World Cup events and a leading margin of 100 points in the overall rankings: 21 years after Georg Hackl achieved the overall World Cup - the last German luger to do so - his protégé Felix Loch is hoping to follow suit. “Right now the odds are good,” said the 22-year-old ahead of the fifth stop of the World Cup series in Oberhof this weekend. The chances to follow in the footsteps of his mentor, who pulled off this feat in the 1989-1990 season, have never been better.
Four years ago Felix Loch celebrated his first World Championship title - as the youngest luger of all time to do so at the age of 17 - on the artificially refrigerated track in Thuringia. In Lake Placid in 2009 he successfully defended his title and in 2010 he earned the gold medal at the Olympic Games in Vancouver. An overall World Cup victory, however, is still missing from his collection. “Of course this is my big aim,” said Loch. He is delivering steady performances as never before, rarely makes a mistake and right now he is “on a roll”, as defending champion Armin Zoeggeler had to admit in Koenigssee. After his 13th place finish in Whistler the Italian luger, with 10 overall World Cup victories to his credit, is tied with Austria’s Markus Prock as record holder. Zoeggeler has more or less written off defending his title successfully.
“With such a result it’s impossible to eventually become overall champion,” the 38-year-old from South Tyrol said. Zoeggeler currently holds fourth position in the rankings as he is 140 points behind overall World Cup leader Loch (385) and his teammates David Moeller (285) and Johannes Ludwig (265). And since the track in Oberhof is not really one of Zoeggeler’s favorites, the two-time Olympic champion will take advantage next weekend “to do some tests”. Zoeggeler, at the 2008 Worlds fifth and at the following World Cup events in Oberhof “only” seventh (2008-2009), sixth (2009-2010) and fifth (2010-2011), added with a smile: “I’m not the youngest anymore, so I need to pace myself.”
Similar to Loch, the Austrian doubles team of brothers Andreas and Wolfgang Linger are hoping for their first overall Viessmann Luge World Cup victory. The Olympic and World Champions are currently at the top of the rankings with 340 points to their credit. Their leading margin melted down to 30 points after defending champions Tobias Wendl-Tobias Arlt (GER) won the events in Calgary and Koenigssee, earning a total of 310 points.
“Oberhof will be a key event,” predicts Andreas Linger, who posted a seventh place finish last year while Wendl-Arlt celebrated a victory.
Tatjana Huefner (GER) is the overall Viessmann Luge World Cup leader with 370 points to her credit, clearly ahead of Canadian Alex Gough (300) and teammate Natalie Geisenberger (295), who blew the chance to win her second career event in Koenigssee. “That was a big mistake at the ‘Echowand’ exit. It already happened to me several times this year. I’ve chucked away good results far too often,” said the Olympic bronze medalist.
