Evelin Lanthaler (ITA) successfully defended the crystal globe in the overall World Cup at the FIL Luge World Cup on Natural Track on Sunday. Lanthaler celebrated her fifth win of the season at the penultimate race in Laas (ITA). For men, Michael Scheikl (AUT) returned to the top podium after his win at the season-opening in Winterleiten (AUT).

Evelin Lanthaler showed an outstandig performance at the extremely fast “Gafair” track in Laas and set the best time in both runs. The World Champion won in 2:07.68 minutes, 1.19 seconds ahead of Tina Unterberger (AUT) on second position. Local hero Greta Pinggera (ITA / + 1.33) following on third place. With her fifth win of the season Lanthaler successfully defended the overall victory, one race before the finale in Umhausen. For the Italian it is the third crystal globe in a row, the fourth in her career.

(from left) Unterberger, Lanthaler and Pinggera

Evelin Lanthaler: “I was extremely nervous before the race. I really wanted to fix the overall win before the finale. The first run was extremely good, the second run was okay. Sometimes being nervous can be a positive thing, now I can be relaxed in Umhausen (AUT) ”.

In the men's single four athletes are competing for the overall win at the finale in Umhausen in one week. Michael Scheikl (AUT), in third place after the first run, was the only top runner in the second run to improve the time from the first run and celebrated in 2:06.45 minutes his second win of the season after the opening win in Winterleiten (AUT) in January. Halftime leader Thomas Kammerlander (AUT) and Patrick Pigneter (ITA) share second place, 0.25 seconds back, ahead of world champion Alex Gruber (ITA / + 0.37).

Winner Michael Scheikl on the "Gafair"-track

Michael Scheikl: "It's going. Recentely I missed victory twice in the last few races. I feel really good and want to be on the podium in the overall standings at the finals in Umhausen. It was my declared goal of the season”.

Defending champion Thomas Kammerlander leads with 500 points, followed by Patrick Pigneter (480), Michael Scheikl (470) and Alex Gruber (450). All four athletes can still win the crystal globe at the finale in Umhausen on February 15th.