Wendl-Arlt: “We’ve become mentally stronger“
Sigulda (pps) After four of the nine Viessmann Luge World Cup events, Germany has won the doubles’ duel with Austria by a clear 4-0. While Austria’s teams dominated the doubles events last winter as brothers Andreas Linger-Wolfgang Linger became World and overall World Cup Champions and compatriots Peter Penz-Georg Fischler took the European title, Germany’s doubles have turned the tables this time around.
The German team of Tobias Wendl-Tobias Arlt (photo), who never earned a World gold medal (silver in 2008), celebrated victories in Innsbruck-Igls, Koenigssee, Altenberg and Sigulda. And they are clearly at the top of the overall Viessmann Luge World Cup rankings. “We’ve become mentally stronger,” they revealed as the “trick” for their brilliant start to the season.
Particularly impressive is their formidable winning margin at the World Cup events in Koenigssee and Altenberg with 0.415 seconds and 0.364 seconds, respectively, and again in Sigulda 0.452 seconds. In a doubles event this makes a world of difference. For comparison: in Innsbruck-Igls Italy’s Ludwig Rieder-Patrick Rastner were just 0.352 seconds behind Wendl-Arlt but it earned them “only” a sixth-place finish.
Up to now the German team convinced by start records, now they have also improved their driving technique. “An old hand in luge once said that, after the start, you’ll still have to tackle 1000 meters,” explained Tobias Arlt with a wink. The “old hand” is Patric Leitner, the coach of Wendl-Arlt. In 2002 Leitner took the Olympic title in the doubles with Alexander Resch.
Germany’s head coach Norbert Loch, however, who was quite happy about the good form of World silver medalists Toni Eggert-Sascha Benecken, warned: “It’s still a very long season. We’ll settle the score after the final.” And Benecken points out that nothing has been won yet and that Austria’s doubles teams claimed all the big titles in the 2011-2012 season. Benecken: “Well, we need to match that if we can.”
There was no other doubles team that was competitive enough to actually disrupt the German-Austrian duel. The best “candidates” were Christian Oberstolz-Patrick Gruber of Italy, who claimed again a third place in Sigulda after a year-long break, the Canadian doubles of Tristan Walker-Justin Snith, who achieved their best European results with two seventh-place finishes and a sixth place in Altenberg, and last but not least, Russia’s Vladislav Yuzhakov-Vladimir Makhnutin, who surprisingly earned a fourth-place finish in Altenberg.
The interest in the doubles events has increased notably, not least due to the inclusion of the Team Relay event within the program of the 2014 Olympic Winter Games in Sochi (Russia) and the resulting support by the International Luge Federation (FIL). A total of 35 teams appeared on the result lists of the first four World Cup events.
