After victory in Oberhof: Eggert/Benecken take aim at Sics brothers

Oberhof (FIL) What an anniversary: Toni Eggert and Sascha Benecken celebrated their 50th victory in a World Cup race at the EBERSPÄCHER Luge World Cup in Oberhof. What made the success especially nice were not only the two track records in 41.331 and 41.320 seconds that Eggert/Benecken achieved, but the 1096-meter-long ice track is the home track of the lugers from BRC Ilsenburg and RT Suhl. "50 - that's a house number, it makes us insanely proud," said front man Eggert, "nice that it worked out in our living room." The only downer for him had been that no spectators were allowed to create an atmospheric mood at their anniversary.

Tobias Wendl and Tobias Arlt came in second. However, the Olympic champions were already 0.316 seconds behind. Despite a start record of 7.272 seconds in the first run. "Toni and Sascha were unbeatable today," coxswain Wendl said, "they started well, skied better and deserved to win." One had simply noticed the home advantage.

The Tobis could not be happy for long about their best start. Emanuel Rieder and Simon Kainzwaldner pulled away from the bow two thousandths of a second faster in heat two and paddled synchronously into turn 4. The two South Tyroleans landed (0.451 sec. back) on the World Cup podium for the second time in the Olympic season. "Sensational," Rieder cheered at the finish, "in the second run we hit the start really well, then it went perfectly." Already came contradiction from sub-man Kainzwaldner: "In curve eleven we had a wobble, there I briefly held my breath."

The fact that the returnees Thomas Steu and Lorenz Koller (Austria/+0.488) were able to finish ahead of Latvia's Andris and Juris Sics (+0.492) in fourth position brings some more suspense into the fight for the overall World Cup. Sics/Sics are only 37 points ahead of Eggert/Benecken. "We have no other chance than to attack brutally once again in St. Moritz," said Benecken, "if you look at the World Cup standings, it will be a super exciting final. We would have dreamed before the season that it could be so exciting at the end. There are only two goals: To get the big ball and stay healthy." 

Results 8th EBERSPÄCHER Luge World Cup in Oberhof: https://www.fil-luge.org/de/ergebnisse/eberspaecher-weltcup-15