Winterberg. At the 40th FIL European Championships, Albert Demtschenko from Russia won his first European title. The Overall Worldcup Champion of 2005 won on the bobtrack in Winterberg (Germany) in a total time of one minute 48,918 seconds and got his second European medal after silver 1996. Silver went to Italy´s defending champion Armin Zöggeler (one minute 49,108 seconds) followed by Germany`s World Champion of 2004, David Möller (one minute 49,458 seconds).
In the first run, also the six year old track record of Jens Müller (Germany) was beaten three times. First of all, five times World Champion Zöggeler improved the record about 0,063 seconds to 54,564 seconds. Even faster was Demtschenko with 54,500 seconds in first run and 54,418 seconds in second run.
Jan Eichhorn won the fight for the last german luge ticket to the Olympic Winter Games in Torino (Italy, 10. to 22. february 2006). Eichhorn, World Champion in Team Competition 2004, finished fifth (one minute 49,836 seconds), his teammate Dennis Geppert, Vice-European Champion of 2002, came to ninth rank (one minute 50,265 seconds).

Quotes:

Albert Demtschenko (RUS, Silver medal at European Championships 1996 and fifth rank at Olympic Winter Games 2002):
„Finally I got a title. The crashes in the last time were a burden and it was not easy. Torino is a hard track, so there can be some surprises.”

Armin Zöggeler (ITA, Olympic Champion 2002 and five times World Champion):
„Albert was very good. He drives very risky. The 15 kilos made the difference.”

David Möller (GER, World Champion 2004, third at World Championships 2005 and Silver medal at European Championships 2004):
„I had a good start and good runs. It is always nice to be on the podium. I also worked on my sled, but the others seem to have the better material at the moment.”