First victory for Australia - Alex Ferlazzo, Kendija Aparjode and Müller/Frauscher win Nations Cup in Sigulda

Sigulda (FIL/13 Jan 2023) Kendija Aparjode, Alex Ferlazzo and the doubles Yannick Müller / Armin Frauscher won the 5th Nations Cup of the 2022/23 season on Friday, January 13 on the only artificial ice track in the Baltic States.

The 26-year-old Latvian Aparjode, whose brother Kristers won the World Cup in Sigulda a week earlier sovereignly, was the fastest of the 20 participating women at the Nations Cup for the World Cup qualification. With a running time of 41.944 seconds, Aparjode won ahead of 22-year-old local hero Sigita Berzina (+0.021 sec.) and 19-year-old 2020 Youth Olympic Games winner Merle Fräbel of Germany (+0.196). "The start into the second World Cup weekend here in Sigulda has definitely been successful already. The warmer weather and softer ice suits me much better. Now I hope I can show that also on Sunday at the World Cup", said Kendija Aparjode. With this victory Aparjode also leads the overall Nations Cup ranking ahead of the US-American Ashley Farquharson, who finished fourth, and Sigita Berzina.

In the men's singles, Alexander Ferlazzo celebrated the first Nations Cup win for Australia and his second podium ever. The 27-year-old made history at the Beijing 2022 Olympic Winter Games as the first athlete to represent Australia at three Olympic Winter Games in luge. Now Ferlazzo is also the first Australian to win the FIL Nations Cup. With a running time of 48.817 seconds, the athlete from Queensland was a good two-tenths of a second faster than Anton Dukach (+0.207). The 27-year-old Ukrainian stood on the podium at the Nations Cup for the fourth time. Lukas Gufler from Italy (+0,397) finished third. With the victory in Sigulda and his third rank at the Nations Cup in Whistler Alex Ferlazzo takes the lead in the overall ranking of the Nations Cup after five of nine races ahead of Lukas Gufler and Anton Dukach.

Ferlazzo was happy about his first Nations Cup victory: "My run today was really quite good. I held back a little bit for the World Cup, but I am quite happy with the run. It is my first win in the Nations Cup and I see progress and that I am improving with time. I am very happy about the victory, but with the later start number in the warm weather I probably didn't do myself any good for the World Cup tomorrow, when the ice will be slower with the higher start numbers. We will see, I am looking forward to the World Cup races tomorrow."

In the doubles' Nations Cup, Yannick Mueller and Armin Frauscher were the fastest in 42.349 seconds. Mueller/Frauscher raced the first Nations Cup of the season. The winners of the Sprint World Cup in Innsbruck have already been on the World Cup podium three times this season and are usually in the seeded group. Due to damage to their sled before the first World Cup run last weekend, the two Austrians were unable to compete and fell out of the seeded group with zero World Cup points. Armin Frauscher laughed: "This weekend already starts with a gold medal for Austria. That is positive". Yannik Müller addressed the damage to the sled: "We had to spend our two days off in the workshop, but we got everything back in order after the sled fell over at the start and the horns broke off".

The US duo of Dana Kellogg and Duncan Segger set the second fastest time, but were subsequently disqualified for being overweight. Therefore, the previous week's third-placed Tomas Vavercak and Matej Zmij from Slovakia came in silver, +0.403 seconds behind, and the two Ukrainians Ihor Hoi and Rostyslav Levkovych (+0.573) in bronze.

In the Nations Cup ranking, the Canadians Devin Wardrope / Cole Zajanski continue to lead after five of nine races ahead of Kellogg/Segger and Vavercak / Zmij.

Athletes qualified for the EBERSPÄCHER World Cup and the 54th FIL European Championships on Saturday, January 14 and Sunday, January 15 via the Nations Cup, which was run in one heat on Friday, January 13, 2023. The fastest twelve sleds of the last three World Cup races are seeded and do not have to go to the Nations Cup for qualification. For them, there will be the training of the seeded group as the last run before the World Cup on the artificial track in Sigulda, Latvia, on Friday, January 13, starting at 14:30 local time.

Detailed results and further information about the 5th EBERSPÄCHER Luge World Cup and of course about the Nations Cup can be found under the following link: https://www.fil-luge.org/de/ergebnisse/eberspaecher-weltcup-23

The results of the 54th FIL European Championships can be found here: https://www.fil-luge.org/de/ergebnisse/fil-europa-meisterschaften-4.

All World Cup races can be followed in livestream on the FIL YouTube channel at: FIL Luge - YouTube https://www.youtube.com/@FILLuge_Channel (In Germany, Latvia and Austria the Livestream is partly geo-blocked due to live TV broadcasts). The TV times can be found on the FIL website under the following link: 2022-23-tv-exposure-5-ech-sigulda2.pdf (fil-luge.org)

Presentations, interviews and more from the EBERSPÄCHER World Cup in Sigulda, Latvia can be found live in the FIL studio: https://youtu.be/zA2OW4A4Gdo