First title for Merle Fräbel on her home track
6th EBERSPÄCHER Luge World Cup Oberhof and FIL European Championships 2026
Oberhof (FIL/17 Jan 2026) Merle Fräbel has won her first major title with her second victory in the EBERSPÄCHER Luge World Cup. On her home track in Oberhof, the 22-year-old German won the European Championships in 1:22.867 minutes. It was Fräbel's second World Cup victory. She achieved her first two years ago, also in Oberhof. “I would have liked to have won on a different track,” she said in her initial reaction, “but I'll take it as it is, in front of my family and many friends.” She impressively demonstrated her mastery of the 946-meter track in Thuringia in the first run, when she improved the track record in 41.403 seconds, which had been held for a year by Austria's Madeleine Egle in 41.505 seconds. And the Austrian lost another record: Elina Bota (Latvia) started the run in 7.492 seconds. Egle's old record was 7.493 seconds.
Lisa Schulte was not satisfied with her two runs. Nevertheless, she came in second, 0.279 seconds behind. With a clean run in the second heat, she was able to push Nathalie Maag into third place by two thousandths of a second. “I won third place, I didn't lose second place,” said the 28-year-old, “in Switzerland, the medal counts for something.” Her second run was a fight for survival. Praise also came from German head coach Patric Leitner: “Congratulations to our partner country Switzerland on the bronze medal.”
Because Hannah Prock (Austria), who was in third place after the first run, made too many mistakes in the second run, she fell back to eighth place and all the other racers moved up. Anna Berreiter (Germany) finished fourth, 0.323 seconds behind, ahead of Dorothea Schwartz (Austria/0.363) and Julia Taubitz (Germany/0.408).
Lisa Schulte and Julia Taubitz lead the overall World Cup standings with equal points (379) ahead of Prock (373).
In the U23 classification, Merle Fräbel won a second title. She won ahead of Dorothea Schwarz and Melina Fischer (Germany).
