Altenberg to host FIL Luge Worlds for the second time after 1996
Altenberg (pps) The 2011 Worlds in Cesana were “well-balanced” as far as the distribution of medals is concerned as all titles went to athletes from different nations: Tatjana Huefner of Germany won the women’s singles, Italy’s “record winner” Armin Zoeggeler earned the title in the men’s singles and the victory in the doubles went to the Austrian team of brothers Andreas and Wolfgang Linger who celebrated their second World Championship title. Positive surprises were the bronze medal of Canadian luger Alex Gough in the women’s singles and another bronze for the Latvian doubles team of brothers Andris and Juris Sics. Germany earned two silver medals thanks to Natalie Geisenberger and Felix Loch. The Italian doubles Christian Oberstolz-Patrick Gruber took silver while Germany’s Andi Langenhan earned bronze in the men’s singles. Germany took the top spot on the final medal rankings with four medals ahead of Italy (2) as well as Austria, Canada and Latvia with one medal each.
At the World Championship debut in Altenberg in 1996, Austria emerged as the most successful nation. No less than three medals went to the Alpine Republic. Markus Prock won the men’s singles ahead of Georg Hackl and Jens Mueller (both of Germany); in the women’s singles Germany’s Jana Bode and Susi Erdmann took the two top spots on the podium while Gerda Weissensteiner of Italy earned the bronze medal. The Austrians Tobias and Markus Schiegl won the doubles gold medal ahead of the U.S. team of Chris Thorpe-Gordy Sheer. The third place went to Italy, this time to Gerhard Plankensteiner and Oswald Haselrieder. The red-white-red team took the title in the team event ahead of Germany and Italy.
