Innsbruck-Igls (pps) Since the inauguration of the Krombacher Challenge Cups the overall winner has always been Sylke Otto. And consequently the 33-year-old 2002 Olympic champion has also won the first two events of the knock-out competition at Altenberg and Lillehammer in the post-Olympic winter.
It almost seems as if Sylke Otto achieves her wins in the Krombacher Challenge Cup automatically. This will be put to the test at Innsbruck-Igls next Friday when the third event of the Krombacher Challenge Cups will be held.
Her third victory in the third race will almost certainly mean the fifth overall win in the fifth series for the dominating women’s luger of the past three years.

„I’m always very careful with such prognostications. Only when everything is clear I believe that I really won”, Sylke Otto says.

Contrary to the women’s event there is a lot of excitement in the men’s and doubles’ events on the 1976 Olympic track. Austria’s Markus Kleinheinz in Altenberg and Germany’s three-time Olympic champion Georg Hackl in Lillehammer won the previous two men’s events.
And two different winners were also registered in the doubles’ event: Austria’s Andreas Linger and Wolfgang Linger in Altenberg and Americans Mark Grimmette and Brian Martin in Lillehammer.
One may look forward whether the strong Austrian team can exploit their home-advantage. At the season’s opener in Altenberg head coach Robert Manzenreiter’s team impressed with a very good performance. And the Austrians would like to impress again on their home-track.

The schedule of the Krombacher Challenge Cup in Igls
Everything will be over after three hours. The third event of the Krombacher Challenge Cup series is scheduled for Friday, January 24, from 10:00 to 13:00 hrs CET.
Within these three hours the heats, semi-finals and finals will take place in the men’s, women’s and doubles’ events.

ZDF shows a summary

The German public TV station ZDF will show a 25-minute summary of the Krombacher Challenge Cup on the artificial track at Igls from 13:05-13:30 hrs CET.

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