Cheyenne Rosenthal, Moritz Bollmann and Vavercak / Zmij the fastest at Nations Cup in St. Moritz
St. Moritz (FIL) Cheyenne Rosenthal (GER), Moritz Bollmann (GER) and the doubles Tomas Vavercak and Matej Zmij (SVK) won the last FIL Nations Cup of the 2020/21 season on Friday, February 5, 2021 in the Swiss wintersports resort St. Moritz.
On the only natural ice track in the World Cup circuit, 20-year-old Cheyenne Rosenthal of Germany won in 54.829 seconds in bright sunshine ahead of Latvia's Kendija Aparjode (+0.024) and Elina Vitola (+0.36). Rosenthal had competed in three of the Nations Cups and finished second twice. At the final in Switzerland, the luge athlete from Winterberger convinced with her first Nations Cup victory.
In the men's race Moritz Bollmann from Germany, also 20 years old, was the fastest in 1:06.600 minutes from the top start which was built especially for the lugers. Second went to US-American Jonathan Gustafson (+0.027) ahead of Austria's Reinhard Egger (+0.045).
In the Nations Cup of the doubles Tomas Vavercak and Matej Zmij (SVK) were the fastest in 54.187 seconds. The two Slovaks already competed very successfully on the natural ice track of St. Moritz two years ago at the Junior World Cup and the Junior European Championships. Matej Zmij was happy: "We liked this track here in St. Moritz from the beginning. Two years ago, we finished fourth at the Junior European Championships, missing the podium only by four thousandths of a second. That was very close. We are very happy that races will be held here on this track in the future. You have to be fast at the start, that's our strength. The track is very nice and interesting, it's difficult but very smooth and quiet to drive." The US luge athletes Chris Mazdzer and Jayson Terdiman finished in silver position (+0.103). Aleksandr Denisev and Vladislav Antonov (RUS) finished third (+0.116). Chris Mazdzer was enthusiastic: "Congratulations to the two young athletes Tomas and Matej they were really very fast at the start. Compliments! It's a nice and very quiet track here. Only if you mess up, you can hear the sled under you".
The overall ranking of the Nations Cup 2020/21, which consisted of nine races, was won by Korea's double Jinyong Park / Jung Myung Cho, Latvia's Gints Berzins and South Tyrol's Verena Hofer in the singles category.
Via the Nations Cup, which always took place on Friday mornings in one run, the athletes qualified weekly for the finals of the EBERSPÄCHER World Cup on Saturday and Sunday. The fastest twelve female athletes and doubles as well as the fastest 15 men of the last three World Cup races were seeded in each case and did not have to qualify through the Nations Cup. For them there was always the seeded training on Friday afternoon as the last run before the World Cup. On Friday, February 5, this last training run for the best lugers will take place from 1 p.m. on the Olympic Bob Run from St. Moritz to Celerina.
Detailed results and further information about the 9th EBERSPÄCHER Luge World Cup in St. Moritz, the Nations Cup and the trainings can be found under the following link: https://www.fil-luge.org/en/multimedia/eberspaecher-world-cup-7
