Egle/Kipp secure Austria's relay victory ahead of Latvia

EBERSPAECHER Team Relay World Cup presented by BMW in Sigulda 2026

Sigulda (FIL/04.01.2026) An outstanding run by the women's doubles team turned the tide for Austria in the EBERSPAECHER Team Relay World Cup presented by BMW. Despite a less than ideal start, Selina Egle and Lara Kipp managed to turn the deficit they had after the runs of their teammates Lisa Schulte, Yannick Müller/Armin Frauscher, and Jonas Müller into a lead. They touched the pad at the finish line in 3:01.215 minutes. In the end, they were 0.295 seconds ahead of Latvia (Elina Bota, Eduards Sevics-Mikelsevics/Lukass Krasts, Kristers Aparjods, Marta Robezniece/Kitija Bogdanova). “It's crazy,” said Lisa Schulte, “Selina and Lara are so fast, they secured us the victory against this strong Latvian team.”

Elina Bota from the Latvian team was impressed by Kristers Aparjods' performance: “What Kristers showed in the relay was extraordinary.” US double pilot Zachary Di Gregorio expressed similar sentiments about Summer Britcher: “We have Summer and her superb performance to thank for getting us on the podium.” The US team was 0.428 seconds slower than the victorious Austrians.

Poland (Klaudia Domaradzka, Wojciech Chmielewski/Michal Gancarczyk, Mateusz Sochowicz, Nikola Domowicz/Dominika Piwkowska) came in fourth, 2.875 seconds behind the team from Ukraine (Yulianna Tunytska, Danyil Martsinovskyi/Bohdan Babura, Anton Dukach, Olena Stetskiv/Oleksandra Mokh/4.041 seconds behind).

Both Italy and Germany failed to qualify. Italy's starting rider Verena Hofer missed the touchpad, while Germany's women's doubles team Dajana Eitberger/Magdalena Matschina crashed out of turn 14. “That's very annoying,” said German head coach Patric Leitner, “Once again, we didn't manage to pull it off cleanly. But you win or lose together as a team.” He announced extra training sessions for the Olympic Games in terms of reaction start, “so that we have more certainty.”