2nd Junior World Cup in La Plagne: Premiere women's doubles successful - juniors back in racing mode - first team event

La Plagne (FIL) For many young luge athletes it was the first competition in almost two years. Due to the Covid 19 pandemic, there were no international luge competitions for juniors on artificial tracks last winter. At the 2nd FIL Junior and Youth A World Cup on 3 and 4 December 2021, in La Plagne, France, luge races were held in ten different competition classes.

At the end of the double World Cup on Saturday, 4 December 2021, eight teams competed in the Junior Team World Cup. A team from each nation consisted of a junior single seater and a junior double seater. It did not matter whether the team nominated a women's or a men's double seater. The Ukraine team competed with two young ladies on the double sled. The World Cup was not run as a relay, the run times were added up afterwards, but the starting height for all starters was at the Lower Ladies' Start. Germany was the fastest team, with Merle Fräbel, Timon Grancagnolo and Moritz Jäger/Valentin Steudte. In this line-up, the team had won silver at the Youth Olympic Games 2020. At that time, only one relay team was faster, Russia now took second place at the Junior World Cup in La Plagne. Sofiia Mazur, who had previously won the junior women's race, Eduard Aleksandrov and Lev Romanov/Vladislav Veremeenko were only 0.033 seconds slower than the winning team. Latvia came third, ahead of the USA and Poland.

The competitors in the junior female and male and youth A events started from the women's start of the Olympic track in La Plagne. Matthew Greiner from the USA repeated his commanding victory from the World Cup opener and also won the second race of the season, on 4 December in France, in 1:30.050 minutes in the juniors. Germany's Timon Grancagnolo was second, 0.337 seconds behind, ahead of Austria's Noah Kallan (+0.537).
Sofiia Mazur of Russia also claimed her second win in the second Junior World Cup. Her winning time after two runs was 1:30.833, slower than two days earlier in colder weather. The two young ladies in second and third swapped places from the first World Cup. Daria Olesik of Russia came in silver this time (+0.144) ahead of Youth Olympic Games winner Merle Fräbel of Germany (+0.179).

All doubles events in the junior, junior and women's general classes were run from the Lower Ladies' Start. As in the historic first Women's Doubles World Cup on Thursday, 2 December 2021, Jessica Degenhardt and Cheyenne Rosenthal of Germany won the second race the following day in an overall time of 1:38.070 minutes after two runs. Second place in the women's general class was taken by juniors Luisa Romanenko and Pauline Patz (+0.066), also from Germany. Third place went to the Latvian women's duo of Anda Upite and Sanija Ozolina (+0.375).

The junior ranking of the female doubles on the Olympic track of Albertville 1992 was won, as in the World Cup opener the day before, by Luisa Romanenko and Pauline Patz (GER/1:38.136) ahead of the two Russians Anastasiia Kropacheva and Alena Starkova (1:38.537) and the Polish juniors Nikola Domovicz/Dominika Piwkowska in third place (1:39.970).
In the male junior double sculls, the duo of Lev Romanov and Vladislav Veremeenko from Russia won with an overall time of 1:35.529 minutes ahead of the opening winners from Latvia Eduards Ševics-Mikeļševics with Lukas Krasts (+0.154). Third were the German Youth Olympic Games winners from 2020 Moritz Jäger and Valentin Steudte (+0.418) for the second time.

On Friday, 3 December 2021, the second Youth A World Cup of the 2021/22 season took place in the French Alps near the Olympic city of Albertville.
In the Youth A female class, Teresa Kirchmair from Tyrol won this time in 1:37.158 minutes ahead of the opening winner Selina Zvilna from Latvia (+0.027) and the third-placed Russian Kseniia Shamova (+0.350). In the Youth A male class, Austria's Fabio Zauser was the fastest among the 25 starters for the second time. His winning time was 1:30.317 minutes. Lukas Peccei (Italy/+0.115) and Marcus Mueller from the USA (+0.307) finished on the other podium places.
The youth A male doubles started like the singles from the Lower Ladies' start only for the youngest women's doubles it was off to the rink from the youth start. Ansel Haugsja and Marcus Mueller from the USA were again the fastest doubles in the youth A male event in 1:37.363 minutes. Latvia's Raimonds Baltgalvis/Krisjanis Bruns (+1.260) took second place ahead of Slovakia's Christian Bosman/Filip Prusak (+1.804).
In the young women's double sculls in Youth A, Latvia's Marta Robežniece/Kitija Bogdanova came out on top in both World Cup races. In the second World Cup the ladies were even faster and won in 1:26.923 ahead of the Austrians Lisa Zimmermann/Dorothea Schwarz (+1.764) and Daria Vereskun/Nikol Dreval from Russia (+3.188).
Results of the 2nd Junior and Youth World Cup in La Plagne (FRA) are available at the following link: https://www.fil-luge.org/de/ergebnisse/2-junioren-weltcup-2

photos: Katja Haupt