Loch, Huefner and Penz-Fischler last year’s winners
Innsbruck-Igls (pps) The 1964 and 1976 Olympic track in Innsbruck-Igls will not only kick off the new luge season on November 24-25, 2012 but will stage its 31st Viessmann Luge World Cup event. Last winter, the winners on the artificially refrigerated track at the foot of the Patscherkofel Mountain were the two German Olympic champions Tatjana Huefner and Felix Loch in the singles. Huefner won the season’s opener ahead of teammate Anke Wischnewski and Alex Gough (Canada) who put an end to the winning series of Germany’s women lugers in Paramonovo in 2011. In the meantime Gough has become one of the toughest opponents of the German female luge racers.
The final result in the 2011 men’s event - with the victory of Felix Loch ahead of compatriot David Moeller and Italian Armin Zoeggeler - exactly mirrors the 2010 results. In the doubles event the Austrians were able to make the most again of their home advantage: After the victory of the 2006 and 2010 Olympic champions Andreas and Wolfgang Linger in 2010, their teammates Peter Penz and Georg Fischler took the top spot of the podium last year. Russia’s team of Vladislav Yuzhakov and Vladimir Makhnutin surprisingly finished in second position, followed by Linger-Linger in third place.
Another surprise was the result in the first of six team relay events with Canada ahead of Germany and Russia, who then embarked on a very successful luge season.
