Winterberg (pps) The 40 th European Luge Championships at Winterberg, Germany (January 20-22), boast a record-entry. 24 nations from four continents have entered. The only team missing is Canada’s Olympic squad preferring a training camp at Innsbruck-Igls, Austria, instead. Austrian Markus Kleinheinz is another athlete missing testing his equipment on his home-track in Tyrol, as is German Georg Hackl due to illness. The three-time Olympic champion will be replaced in the German team by Andi Langenhan.

All other luging stars will compete at the 50 th anniversary of the organising club BRC Hallenberg. European title holders are Germany’s Silke Kraushaar and Italy’s Armin Zoeggeler. The 1998 Olympic women’s champion and the 2002 Olympic gold medal winner made a decisive step towards winning the overall Viessmann Luge World Cups last weekend. The reigning European doubles champion, Steffen Skel and Steffen Woeller, will not defend their title on their home-track as they have retired from their career.

The German team is the title holder in the team event. Since Kelly Fairweather, the Sports Director of the International Olympic Committee, IOC, was prevented from establishing the Olympic suitability of the team event at the final at Koenigssee last weekend due to fog at Zurich airport, IOC delegate Pierre Ducrey will try again this weekend at Winterberg.

Three weeks prior to the opening of the Olympic Winter Games in Torino, Italy, special trains from the Ruhr Region, a free bus shuttle from the train station to the track as well as various activities in the Kreisel should make the event a real luge festival. “We want to create an absolute highlight in the Olympic season with our well-tested organising team and the many volunteers from Hallenberg”, says Winfried Stork, managing director of the track company as well as regional director and chairman of the organising committee.

The last decision for the Olympics will be made in the German team at the European Championships about the third starting place besides Georg Hackl and former World champion David Moeller. Jan Eichhorn and Denis Geppert will fight for that place. The other Olympic tickets go to the 2002 Olympic doubles champions, Patric Leitner and Alexander Resch and the two-time World champions Andre Florschuetz-Torsten Wustlich and to the three women Silke Kraushaar, Sylke Otto and Tatjana Huefner.