Concern about track record spurs Julia Taubitz on

Innsbruck (FIL) With a real final spurt Julia Taubitz claimed her 13th victory in the women's single at the EBERSPÄCHER Luge World Cup in Innsbruck-Igls. It was her 16th World Cup victory overall with the BMW Sprint World Cups. After the first run, the World Champion from Germany was still behind Madeleine Egle.

The local matador even admitted that she had been a bit too tentative at the start. So an improvement was possible. But only Taubitz succeeded, improving her own track record by 44 thousandths of a second to 39.701 seconds. "It was a great run," said the 25-year-old. In the final standings she was 0.012 seconds faster than Egle. Third was Natalie Geisenberger (Germany). The Olympic Champion was 0.348 seconds behind.

Before her first run, Taubitz had fears. "The girls had all luged so fast," she said, "so I was afraid that the track record would be taken away from me." The fear was unfounded, instead she pulverised her best time. At the same time, she said, the run was not quite optimal. "At the top of the start you can be more aggressive," she said, describing her strategy, "it's always a mixture of fear of the corner and good start time."

Although she had victory in sight but then lost it, Madeleine Egle was also satisfied with her performance. "If I fall behind a competitor who sets a track record, it is not a defeat," said the 23-year-old Austrian. And winner Taubitz praised: "Madeleine kept up super strong."

After heat one, Emily Sweeney was in third place, 0.023 seconds behind Egle. In heat two, the US-American wanted to do it again so well. "Then I made a mistake in curve ten," said the 28-year-old, who fell back to sixth place, 0.484 seconds behind.

Detailed results and further information on the 5th EBERSPÄCHER Luge World Cup in Innsbruck-Tyrol can be found under the following link: https://www.fil-luge.org/de/ergebnisse/eberspaecher-weltcup-12