Calgary (pps) At the Viessmann Luge World Cup in Calgary, Andi Langenhan of Germany has ended the winning series of Olympic champion Felix Loch. At the third individual World Cup victory after Igls (2008) and Oberhof (2010), the 2011 bronze medallist took the top spot on the podium being 0.094 seconds ahead of two-time World champion Loch. Germany’s Felix Loch, who botched the first run and thus finished only in fifth position at “half-time”, had won the World Cup events in Innsbruck-Igls and Whistler. Third place went to Olympic runner-up David Mueller who thus completed the clean podium sweep of Germany’s lugers in the men’s singles.
With his ninth place in the World Cup, Canada’s Sam Edney won the gold medal at the inaugural American-Pacific Championships. US luger Isaac Underwood took silver and Bruno Banani of Tonga, who qualified for the first time for the Viessmann Luge World Cup, finished in 26th position. Thus he surprisingly gained the bronze medal in the American-Pacific Championships. “This is unbelievable. Just incredible,” said the 24-year-old slider.
Loch is still heading the overall Viessmann Luge World Cup rankings with 285 points to his credit, ahead of Moeller (225) and Langenhan (210).
Quotes
Andi Langenhan
(GER / 2011 and 2008 World bronze medallist, Olympic 5th-placed)
“I never thought I could win here in Calgary because I usually have problems tackling this track. But I had two good runs and I’m more than happy. My sled is perfect, I took some risks and I had two good starts.”
Felix Loch
(GER / 2010 Olympic and two-time World champion)
“Oh well, I ‘m not perfect. Mistakes happen and I think they cost me three tenths of a second. Unfortunately, I missed to improve Armin Zoeggeler’s track record by just five hundreds of a second in my second run. I would have like to take that record. But of course my focus is on the overall Viessmann Luge World Cup victory and on the Worlds in Altenberg.”
David Moeller
(GER / Olympic runner-up, two-time World champion)
“It seems as if we are starting to get results as in the women’s singles."
