Nagano (pps) David Möller from Germany won the title for the first time at the 37th World Championships in the sport of luge in Nagano, Japan. Six years after his third Olympic victory, Georg Hackl missed his fourth World Champion title by exact eight thousandth of seconds. With his second place, the 37 years old athlete from Berchtesgaden, who won the World Champion title before in 1989, 1990 and 1997, remained with three gold, six silver and one bronze medal in the eternal medals table behind Armin Zöggeler (4 – 1- 0) from Italy, who ended up with nothing in Nagano.
With 1:39,150, Möller beat his team-mate Georg Hackl (1:39,158) into second place. For the 22 year old athlete from Oberhof, this was the utmost success in his career. Martins Rubenis from Latvia, who was Vice-Champion in the World Championships at his home track in Sigulda in the previous year, won bronze in Nagano with 1:39,347 minutes.

Quotes:

David Möller (GER), Vice-Champion European Championships 2004:
„Even if I won the title of World Champion now, I am not by any means a perfect luge athlete. I still have to improve much. As for me, Armin Zöggeler and Georg Hackl are perfect luge athletes, and I still hold their performances in great respect. Today morning when it was snowing, I went into the temple and rubbed the Buddha particularily hard. According to the belief of the Japanese, it’s supposed to bring you good luck.

Georg Hackl (GER), three-times Olympic Champion:
„It seems like I will also be gradually able to slide very fast when it was snowing. But we also were very lucky, because it was not very difficult in our start group to luge. After the performances during this winter season, I can sneak a glance with one eye towards the 2006 Olympic Winter Games in Torino. Since 1987, I have always won a medal at the season’s highlight, even if it was only the gold medal of the team competition at the World Championships in 1999 and last year at Königssee. This is really enormous.“

Martins Rubenis (LAT), Vice-Champion 2003 World Championships:
„I have made many experiments during this winter season and changed very much on my material. However, I have gathered all my power and concentration for these World Championships, used my sled of the previous year and was rewarded with the third place. I do not regard myself as a specialist exclusively for World Championships.“