Altenberg (pps) Germany´s luge girls dominates the European Championsships. World Champions Sylke Otto (1:46,871 minutes) won for the second time after after 2000 the Gold Medal at Altenberg. Second place went to Olympic Champion Silke Kraushaar (1:47,630) followed by Barbara Niedernhuber (1:47,762) Sylke Otto clocked in the first run in 53,312 seconds a new track record. Behind Anke Wischnewski (1:47,967), Lilian Ludan (UKR) came in on rank five with a time of 1:48,409 as the best Non-German.

Markus Prock wins European title for the third time - Silver and Olympic ticket for Geppert, Zöggeler third

Altenberg (pps) Austria´s Markus Prock puts an end to the row of German victories at the European Championsship at Altenberg. The two-time World Champion (1:49,610 minutes) won his third title after 1994 and 1998 follwed by Germany´s Denis Geppert (1:49,720) and Italy´s World Champion Armin Zöggeler (1:49,891). With this success Geppert earned Germany´s las ticket for the Olympic Winter Games at Salt Lake City (8. ? 24. February, 2002). The other Gold Medals at this European Championship went all to Germany. Two-time World Champion Sylke Otto defended her title followed by her team mates Silke Kraushaar and Barbara Niedernhuber. Patric Leitner/Alexander Resch repeated their vitory from 2000, followed by Austria`s Tobias Schiegl/Markus Schiegl and Italy`s Gerhard Plankensteiner/Oswald Haslrieder.

The team competition was won by Germany I (Silke Kraushaar, Georg Hackl and Steffen Skel/Steffen Wöller) ahead of Germany II (Sylke Otto, Denis Geppert and Patric Leitner/Alexander Resch) and Austria I (Angelika Neuner, Markus Prock and Tobias/ Schiegl/Markus Schiegl.