Igls. Sylke Otto, Georg Hackl and Tobias Schiegl/Markus Schiegl won the third LuK Challenge Cup on the Olympic track in Igls. While it was the third victory and thus a hat trick for the World and European Champion from Oberwiesenthal, the three-time Olympic champion and the Austrian winners of the Two-track European Championships were up front in the knock-out race for the first time. At the finals in Altenberg on Friday, Sylke Otto, who won by only 14 thousandths of a second, merely requires a third rank in order to hit the jackpot amounting to US $ 10,000.-.
Otto (40.676 seconds) was first in front of Silke Kraushaar (40.690) from Oberhof and Barbara Niedernhuber (40.803) from Berchtesgaden. Hackl (49.702) put World Champion Jens Müller (49.955) from Oberhof and the Italian Wilfried Huber (50.044) in ranks two and three. In the doubles competition the Austrians Tobias Schiegl/Markus Schiegl (40.447) won in front of Andre Florschütz/Torsten Wustlich (40.458) from Oberhof and Oberwiesenthal and Mark Grimmette/Brian Martin (40.577) from the USA.
The Deputy World Champions Steffen Skel/Steffen Wöller (Winterberg), who crashed in the elimination runs, were very lucky and did not get injured. In the men’s race Markus Prock eliminated Vice World Champion Armin Zöggeler (Italy) by 8 thousandths of a second.
Opinions:
Georg Hackl: „This is a great day for me because I beat the biggest names in the sport of luge, Armin Zöggeler and Jens Müller. Today‘s changing weather conditions might have been an advantage for me.“
Sylke Otto: „I am totally happy about my victory. I stood cross in the finish curve and was no longer believing that I could be up front.“
Silke Kraushaar: „A neck-and-neck race has been going on for the whole season. At the World Cup I am planning to turn the tables.“
Tobias Schiegl: „Slowly we are getting up speed. After all the World Championships are approaching. I am looking forward to this track, which I like very much.“
