Excitement in the men’s event: Over half a dozen athletes in the running for the overall victory

 Natalie Geisenberger and Eggert/Benecken within reach of World Cup

Sochi (RWH) A new milestone: Ahead of the season finale in the Viessmann World Cup, there are still half a dozen athletes in the running to win the Joska Cup as the overall winner in the men’s luge event. Not one but two events are scheduled for the Olympic track in Sochi. The morning of February 24, 2019 will see athletes compete in the Viessmann World Cup race, which will then be followed by the BMW Sprint World Cup race two hours later.

The overall winner of the 2018/2019 Viessmann World Cup will only be clear once these two events are over. There are over half a dozen athletes in contention for the title. At the moment, a mere 100 points currently separate the leader Johannes Ludwig (GER) from the athlete in seventh place, Dominik Fischnaller (ITA). And the line-up between Olympic bronze medallist Ludwig (on 598 points) and Fischnaller, the 2017 World Championship bronze medallist (498 points), is a real who’s who of the luging scene: Fresh from his win at the European Championships, Semen Pavlichenko of Russia is in second (588); the current World Champion Felix Loch is in third (583); fourth place is held by Austria’s World Championship silver medallist Reinhard Egger (580), followed by Russia’s Roman Repilov (548), the overall winner from 2016/2017, and then Olympic Champion David Gleirscher (526) of Austria. “It’s all incredibly close. So much can still happen,” predicts Reinhard Egger.

In contrast, the results of the women’s and doubles events are more or less a done deal. With a 176-point lead over her teammate Julia Taubitz, the Olympic and World Champion Natalie Geisenberger (GER) simply has to make it across the finish line, and the same goes for the doubles team of Toni Eggert/Sascha Benecken (GER). The two-time World Champions Eggert/Benecken have a buffer as big as 183 points over Austria’s Thomas Steu/Lorenz Koller in second place. Current European Champions Tobias Wendl/Tobias Arlt (GER) are then just 14 points behind in third place.

The German team’s win in the overall Viessmann Team Relay World Cup presented by BMW is also set in stone. Despite the fact the unbeaten winners of this event have only won two races (Calgary and Königssee) so far this post-Olympic season, the team led by head coach Norbert Loch still have a clear lead with 440 points in the overall standings after five events. The Russian team – who recently won the World Championships in Winterberg – follow in second place with 355 points. Third place goes to the Latvian contingent (340). Sochi is set to host an extra team relay race after the event in Altenberg was cancelled due to inclement weather.