German doubles Degenhardt/Rosenthal and Wendl/Arlt win in St. Moritz-Celerina

St. Moritz-Celerina (FIL/18.02.2023) The German doubles with Jessica Degenhardt/Cheyenne Rosenthal and Tobias Wendl and Tobias Arlt were unbeatable today at the 8th FIL EBERSPÄCHER Luge World Cup at the Olympic Bobrun St. Moritz-Celerina. While the race for the big crystal globe in the men's doubles is still open, Italy's Andrea Vötter and Marion Oberhofer secured an early victory in the overall World Cup with their second place today.

In the women's race Jessica Degenhardt and Cheyenne Rosenthal took their second victory of the season after Winterberg on the world's only natural ice track. Still in second place after the first run, the World Champions managed to push past the Italians and win in an overall time of 1:49.577 with two thousandths ahead of Andrea Vötter and Marion Oberhofer (+0.002 sec.). After their shared victory in the Sprint Overall World Cup today they also secured the big crystal globe for the Overall World Cup. Latvia's Viktorija Ziedina and Selina Zvilna landed their first World Cup podium in third place, 1.126 sec. behind, closely followed by Selina Egle and Lara Kipp (AUT, +1.159 sec.) and the Americans Chevonne Forgan and Sophia Kirkby (+1.189 sec.). The only 17-year-old Austrians Lisa Zimmermann and Dorothea Schwarz celebrated a great World Cup debut with sixth place.

Winner Jessica Degenhardt already had fond memories of the track. She won silver in the singles and gold in the doubles with her then partner Vanessa Schneider at the Youth Olympic Games 2020. The Latvians Viktporija Ziedina and Selina Zvilna finished third then as they did today.

In the overall women's doubles World Cup, Italy's Vötter/Oberhofer secured an early victory with their tenth podium finish. Before the season finale, they have an unassailable lead of 940 points over Egle/Kipp (815 points) and the world champions Degenhardt/Rosenthal (813 points).

Wendl/Arlt extend overall World Cup lead

Tobias Wendl and Tobias Arlt celebrate their first World Cup victory on the only natural ice track in the world and the 51st of their career. The Bavarian double achieved the best run time in both runs and pushed their teammates Toni Eggert and Sascha Benecken (+0,045 sec.) to second place in an overall time of 1:47,183. With this victory they extended their lead in the overall World Cup.

Latvia's Martins Bots and Robers Plume finished third, 0.241 sec. behind, showing once again that the track in Engadin is one of their favorite tracks. It was here that they achieved their first World Cup victory at the comeback of the luge World Cup at the 2020/21 Olympic Bobrun St. Moritz-Celerina. The third German double with Hannes Orlamünder and Paul Gubitz (+0.480 sec.) still moved up to fourth place, closely followed by Emanuel Rieder and Simon Kainzwalder (ITA, +0.490 sec.) and Latvians Eduards Sevics-Mikelsevics and Lukass Krasts (+0.629 sec.)

After their victory in the Sprint Overall World Cup, Wendl/Arlt are now reaching for the big crystal globe. It would be their fifth overall World Cup victory. Before the World Cup final in Winterberg they are in the lead with 914 points ahead of Eggert/Benecken (870 p.) and Bots/Plume (711 p.).

Quotes:

Jessica Degenhardt (GER): “We didn't have a single good run in training, but we got the first one down well today. We were a tenth behind in the second, which is usually too much, but that it worked out like this is insane. My pulse is still at 200.”

Andrea Vötter (ITA): “It was super exciting because we had a mistake right after the start in the second run. I knew then that we had to give everything. We are happy about the big globe. Tonight we will definitely celebrate!”

Marion Oberhofer (ITA): “We are going to Winterberg much more relaxed now because we just don't race that well there. With the big globe in our luggage it's more relaxed driving.”

Tobias Arlt (GER): “Actually we don't look at statistics and try to start every race with new concentration. We are happy about the 51st victory and about the team relay tomorrow. We hope that the track will hold in this weather. We had already decided on the material at the beginning of the week, but we would really prefer it to be colder. It's going to be really difficult now with the temperatures and we were lucky that we were starting in the morning. Now we celebrate our first victory in St. Moritz for now!”

Tobias Wendl (GER): “We have been working on the start all week. It's flat, which we like, but while at other flat start ramps like at Königssee the paddle goes first down and then flat, here you have the first paddler on the straight. The upper body always wants to push on it. We only got that right today at the start. Thanks at this point to Uli Fietkau and Patrick Leitner, who coached us really well this week.”

Roberts Plume (LAT): “There are no secrets in St. Moritz. The best wins. You have to work a lot, feel the track and have fun. We did that well today and third place feels good. In training it didn't go so well at the start, that was really depressing, but today we were highly motivated and it worked out.”

The results of the 8th EBERSPÄCHER World Cup of the 2022/23 season are available under the following link: https://www.fil-luge.org/de/ergebnisse/eberspaecher-weltcup-26