Despite their victory, Martins Bots and Roberts Plume are not really satisfied

Innsbruck (FIL/07 Dec 2024) Reunion of the most successful doubles at the EBERSPAECHER Luge World Cup: On the converted Olympic track in Innsbruck-Igls, the same three doubles were on the podium as at the World Cup opener in Lillehammer. However, they have mixed up a bit. Martins Bots and Roberts Plume were the confident winners. It was the seventh World Cup victory for the Latvians in 1:32.393 minutes. With a gap of 0.179 seconds, the Lillehammer winners Toni Eggert and Florian Müller (Germany) came in second, ahead of Thomas Steu and Wolfgang Kindl. The Austrians had risked too much on their home track in the second run and briefly lost control of their sled in the labyrinth. “We've had problems with the new start height all week,” said Kindl, “so we didn't really have a home advantage.” They were 0.289 seconds behind.

Shortly before the award ceremony, an interesting dialog took place between the winning duo. Plume said that Igls was now one of their favorite tracks after they secured the track record in the first run in 46.151 seconds. Helmsman Bots disagreed. “Not quite yet,” said the helmsman, ‘we still haven't broken the start record.’ That record is held by Eggert/Müller at 9:14.3 seconds. ‘But we'll get it next year,’ Bots announced.

Toni Eggert, who is returning to the sport, was full of praise for the Latvians' performance. “Both of them were as fast as lightning,” said the 36-year-old veteran, who has won eleven world championship titles and the overall World Cup six times. They made a few mistakes in their run, especially in the first heat, which is why Eggert admitted: “We could have been a tenth faster, but it wouldn't have been enough for victory.”

With the second-best time (46.246) in the second run, the Italian duo Ivan Nagler/Fabian Malleier were able to improve to fourth place (0.343) and overtake Yannick Müller/Armin Frauscher (Austria/0.356). Six-time Olympic champions Tobias Wendl and Tobias Arlt drew a particular conclusion after their sixth place (0.507). “The first run was awful, the second bad,” was the conclusion of Germany's Wendl. ”There is still a lot of room for improvement.”