Innsbruck-Igls (pps) “That’s cool,” said Alex Gough, bronze medalist of the last World Championships. “Three different nations on the podium - that’s really something,” said the Canadian luger right after having earned a third-place finish at the Viessmann Luge World Cup in Lillehammer, Norway. The podium’s top spot was claimed by Germany’s Natalie Geisenberger, ahead of Tatiana Ivanova of Russia on second place. Austria with a showpiece performance ahead of ‘home’ World Cup The result at the tour opener in the Olympic season came as a surprise. But even more surprising were the other results – Latvia’s Eliza Tiruma finished in fourth place, followed by 2010 Olympic silver medalist Nina Reithmayer of Austria and Italy’s Sandra Gasparini. Six different nations claimed the top six finishes – a rarity in the history of the Viessmann Luge World Cup. After all the years, when Germany’s women lugers were dominating the series and often making a clean sweep, the rest of the “luge world” is now breathing a sigh of relief.

first victory in the Viessmann Luge World Cup and loudly celebrated his success, Germany’s head coach Norbert Loch already spoke of a “wake-up call”: “We’re in the Olympic season. So everyone did a bit more in the pre-season preparation than usual,” he said.

Austria’s team, for instance, achieved good results ahead of their World Cup “back home” in Innsbruck-Igls this weekend: In the men’s singles they claimed a fifth, sixth and ninth place thanks to Wolfgang Kindl and the two brothers, Daniel and Manuel Pfister; Nina Reithmayer achieved a fifth-place finish in the women’s singles and in the doubles, Austria posted a third-place finish (Andreas Linger-Wolfgang Linger), a sixth place (Thomas Steu-Lorenz Koller) and a ninth place result (Peter Penz-Georg Fischler).

“It was a very good start for us into the new season. Well, it looks like we did everything right during the summer,” said Austria’s head coach René Friedl. “I even believe that we could have done better in all disciplines. We’ll return home with a lot of confidence and we are looking forward to the next challenge.”
Not only the three disciplines – women’s and men’s singles as well as the doubles – will be carried out on the artificially refrigerated track of the 1976 Olympic Games but, for the first time this season, a Team Relay event. In view of the première of the fourth luge discipline at the upcoming Winter Games, the Team Relay event takes on special importance.