VATRA DORNEI. On Saturday, February 4th, the second race day of the 21st FIL World Championships on Luge on Natural Track in Vatra Dornei (ROU), the first competition runs of the women’s and the men’s events as well as the final runs of the doubles were executed. The runs took place under difficult conditions, the athletes had to deal with rain and warm temperatures.

At the doubles’ event, Rupert Brüggler/Tobias Angerer (AUT) triumphed: The Austrians were able to adjust to the conditions of the track quite well and won their second gold medal of this World Championships after the Austrian victory in the team competition on the day before. “It was extremely difficult to race,” said Angerer, “but we were lucky enough to start as the first pairing, and we tried to get the most out of it.” His partner Brüggler added: “Although we were quite optimistic – especially after the victory in the team competition – we didn’t really expect to win gold today.” In the last World Cup race in Vatra Dornei, the Austrians had ranked second, but this time they were on top of the podium in Romania. “We knew that we are fast on this track, and our equipment was perfect – that, along with our start number, may have been the key to success today,” Angerer said.

Patrick Pigneter/Florian Clara (ITA), the World Champions of 2015, ranked second: The Italians had a time of 01:21.94 minutes and were 78 hundredths slower than the victorious Austrians. The bronze medal was awarded to a Russian pairing: Aleksey Martyanov/Ivan Rodin quite surprisingly ranked third and thus won their first FIL World Championships medal ever. However, it was not the first time for Martyanov to receive a medal in Vatra Dornei: In 2014, he triumphed at the singles’ event of the Junior World Championships in Romania.

At the women’s event, Greta Pinggera (ITA), who already had demonstrated her skills in the team competition on the day before, had the best run time: With 01:16.70 minutes, the Italian was 17 hundredths faster than her teammate Evelin Lanthaler, the reigning World Champion. Tina Unterberger from Austria ranked third, she was 1,23 seconds behind Pinggera.
At the men’s event, Alex Gruber (ITA) was the fastest athlete on this day: The Italian ranked first with a time of 01:16.47 minutes. Runner-up was the Russian Juri Talikh, who had a time of 01:17.21 and was 74 hundredths slower than Gruber. Thomas Kammerlander (AUT), who had delivered the best run time in the team competition on the day before, came in third – 84 hundredths behind Gruber.

On Sunday, February 5th, the 21st FIL World Championships on Luge on Natural Track will come to an end after the finals of the women’s and the men’s events.

Results:
http://www.fil-luge.org/en/multimedia/fil-world-championships-on-luge-on-natural-track