Emily Sweeney, Leon Felderer, Egle/Kipp and DiGregorio/Hollander the fastest at the Nations Cup in Innsbruck

Damen, Nationencup Igls 2022

Innsbruck (FIL/02 Dec 2022) Emily Sweeney (USA), Leon Felderer (ITA), Selina Egle / Lara Kipp (AUT) and Zachary Di Gregorio / Sean Hollander (USA) were victorious at the first FIL Nations Cup of the season on Friday, December 2, 2022 at the 1976 Olympic ice track in Innsbruck-Igls. In light snowfall, the first World Cup qualifier took place at the foot of mount Patscherkofel starting at 9 am.

Emily Sweeney from Suffield (Conn.) won sovereignly in 39.844 seconds ahead of the two Germans Merle Fräbel and Dajana Eitberger. The winner of the 2020 Youth Olympic Games Fräbel was 14 hundredths of a second behind, her teammate Eitberger two hundredths behind the second place. Twenty-nine Women's singles competed in the FIL Nations Cup to qualify for a spot in the EBERSPÄCHER World Cup on Saturday, Dec. 3. The 29-year-old Sweeney has a big World Cup weekend workload ahead of her, "It's fantastic to start the weekend with a win. The snow didn't affect me at all today, with the ladies behind me in the starting order it may have had more of an impact on the times. Tomorrow we have a lot to do. We will start first in the ladies doubles and then in the singles. But I am really looking forward to this challenge. It's great fun that the season has started again."

Nationencup Herren, Igls 2022

In the men's race, 22-year-old Leon Felderer from Latzfons was the fastest among the 27 starters. With a running time of 50.725 seconds, the eleventh-place finisher at the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics won ahead of the two US Americans Tucker West (+0.116) and Jonathan Gustafson (+0.153). "Starting the season with a victory was very important for me after the long summer break. Now I know that I can still do it. For Sunday I definitely still have reserves. A top-10 place would be the goal for me at the World Cup", said Leon Felderer. Tucker West was also satisfied with his second place: "In Igls it is not easy to be fast. The conditions were difficult and at the start you could still see a lot of people who were flipping the sled. So I am all the happier here with the first podium of the season and the qualification for the World Cup on Sunday. The first important step has been made".

Egle / Kipp, Nationencup Igls 2022

Eleven women's and eleven men's duos competed in the Nations Cup of the doubles. The women's doubles celebrated their Nations Cup premiere. The local heroes will go down in FIL history as the first winners. Selina Egle and Lara Kipp were the fastest women's duo with a running time of 40.537 seconds. Andrea Vötter and Marion Oberhofer from South Tyrol (ITA) were only eight hundredths of a second slower. World champions Jessica Degenhardt and Cheyenne Rosenthal of Germany finished third, one-tenth of a second behind the winners.

It was a US-American day at the Igler ice track. In the men's doubles two teams from North America were on the podium with Zachary Di Gregorio and Sean Hollander (39.972 seconds) as winners and their compatriots Dana Kellogg / Dana Segger (+0.283) on rank 3. Hannes Orlamünder and Paul Gubitz (GER) came in second (+0.076). 

Herren Doppel, Nationencup Igls 2022

Through the Nations Cup, which is always held the day before the first World Cup in one run, athletes can secure a starting place for the final of the EBERSPÄCHER World Cup every week. Eighteen singles (men and women) and twelve doubles each can qualify. 
The best twelve sleds in the rankings from the last three World Cup races are seeded for the World Cup start and do not have to qualify via the Nations Cup. Instead, there will be a final training run for them as part of the seeded groups in the afternoon after the Nations Cup. 

he newest discipline in the EBERSPÄCHER World Cup is women's doubles. In the last Olympic season, the Women's Doubles World Cup was still held in the series with the FIL Junior World Cup. There were 21 teams at the start. For the winter 2022/23, this youngest Olympic discipline of the FIL is now integrated into the EBERSPÄCHER World Cup. The eleven duos from eight nations registered for Innsbruck are all eligible to start within the quotas at the World Cup on Saturday, December 3, starting at 9 a.m. at the Olympic ice track in Igls.

Detailed results and further information about the 1st EBERSPÄCHER Luge World Cup of the 2022/23 season in Innsbruck (AUT), about the Nations Cup and the trainings can be found at the following link: https://www.fil-luge.org/de/ergebnisse/eberspaecher-weltcup-19