Second track record in two days for Sylke Otto
Altenberg. On the luge and bobsleigh track in Altenberg World Champion Sylke Otto won her second VIESSMANN-Weltcup in this season. In the first run, Otto beat the track record Silke Kraushaar had just set up (53.398 sec); with a total time of 1:47.009 minutes she beat her all-time competitor Kraushaar (1:47,855) and Sonja Wiedemann (1:47,855) without major difficulties. After the first run, Barbara Niedernhuber from WSV Königssee was lying in ninth place, however, crashed and was eliminated in the second run.
With her track record, Sylke Otto also made another step towards the super jackpot amounting to US$ 50 000. Now, in order to hit the jackpot offered by the FIL and its marketing partner CWL, the World Champion only requires one more track record at the World Cup in Nagano or at the World Championships in Calgary, plus rank one, two or three in the same run.
On Friday, Sylke Otto had won the LuK Challenge Cup in Altenberg, and thus – with her fourth victory of four races – already won the FIL’s and CWL’s „little“ jackpot (US$ 10 000.-).
Silke Kraushaar (455) continues to lead the Overall World Cup rating, in front of Sylke Otto (406)and Angelika Neuner (320), who finished at rank 4 in Altenberg.
First victory in this season for Florschütz/Wustlich
Altenberg. On the luge and bobsled track in Altenberg, Andre Florschütz and Thorsten Wustlich from Oberhof won the fifth race of the VIESSMANN World Cup series. Approximately 2000 excited spectators celebrated the successful team, who had beaten the Italians Gerhard Plankensteiner/Oswald Haselrieder(1:25.296) and the Germans Steffen Skel/Steffen Wöller (1:25.347) with a total time of 1:25.216 minutes. Patric Leitner and Alexander Resch (Königssee/GER), who in the first run had had the best time of all, almost crashed in the second run and – with a total time of 1:28.739 minutes - were very disappointed to finish at rank 19 only.
With regard to the Overall World Cup rating, Skel/Wöller (390) were able to defend their lead on their team-mates Florschütz/Wustlich (355). With their second rank in Altenberg, Plankensteiner/Haselrieder (296) managed to move from rank six to rank three of the Overall World Cup rating; Leitner/Resch (275) dropped back to rank 5.
Opinions
Thorsten Wustlich: „We knew from the training week that we could be very fast at this track, however, we did not think that we could actually win. We are certainly very happy. I cannot say anything about our chances regarding the Overall World Cup yet, as we don‘t know the tracks in Nagano and the USA yet.“
Patric Leitner: „This was definitely a driving mistake. We came out of the „Kreisel“ too late and then it was over for us. I am really disappointed, as we had come here with great hopes.“
