Kraushaar in front of Wiedemann and Otto
Leitner/Resch in front of Skel/Wöller and Schiegl/Schiegl
Park City. The Olympic test race ended with two victories for German luge athletes. At the 7th Viessmann luge World Cup in Park City, venue of the Olympic competition in Salt Lake City in 2002, the German women celebrated their 25th World Cup victory in a row. The gold medal went to Olympic champion Silke Kraushaar (1:26.800 minutes) from Oberhof/ GER, who set up a new track record with 43.291 seconds in the first run. Sonja Wiedemann (1:27.067) was second in front of World and European Champion Sylke Otto (1:27.067), who was best in the second run and thus moved up from rank nine to rank three.
In the double’s competition the World and European Champions Patric Leitner/Alexander Resch (Königssee/Berchtesgaden/ GER) won their second World Cup of this season with 1:26.564 minutes. Ranks two and three went to the Overall World Cup leaders Steffen Skel/Steffen Wöller (1:26.702) and the Austrians Tobias Schiegl/Markus Schiegl (1:26.861). Skel/Wöller are now leading the Overall World Cup rating with 545 points; current leader of the women’s rating is Silke Kraushaar with 640 points.
Opinions:
Patric Leitner: „I have heard of the pre-Olympic omen, saying that the winner of the Olympic test competition never became Olympic champion, however, this rule now needs to be broken.“
Steffen Skel: „This is the result we had hoped for. We did not want to win, but finish second and thus hold our lead in the Overall World Cup. We are very happy.“
Tobias Schiegl: „This is a great track. We feel absolutely good here. The US athletes surprised me as I had thought they would be better here“.
Sylke Otto: „After my mistakes in the first run I was disappointed, but somehow also relieved. I am very content with my third rank and certainly also with my fastest time in the second run.“
